Sincro vs LeadLocate: Dealer Software Comparison

Two different bets on the same problem. One improves the traffic you already generate. The other supplies the leads and the system that works them.

Very few stores put these two side by side because they are the same product. They put them side by side because there is a fixed amount of money and a decision about where it produces the most delivered units this quarter.

Framed that way the question gets clearer. One model says: your website and your advertising are the engine, so invest there, generate more of your own traffic, and convert more of it. The other says: you already have more opportunity than you work properly, so buy exclusive lead volume and put a system underneath it that guarantees nothing but does make sure nobody gets forgotten.

Both are defensible. Which is right depends on numbers you can pull today: how much traffic your site gets, what it converts at, how fast your team responds, and how many touches a lead actually receives before somebody gives up. If your site is fine and your follow up dies at touch two, more traffic is the expensive way to fix a cheap problem.

Public information about packaging, ownership and program participation in the digital marketing space changes frequently, so verify current capability, terms and pricing with each vendor rather than relying on this page.

Sincro is publicly known as an automotive digital marketing and dealer website provider. Websites, paid search and display, social, search visibility work, and managed marketing services, with participation in manufacturer digital programs. It is an agency and platform relationship, and the deliverable is traffic and a site to land it on.

LeadLocate is a lead generation platform with a full CRM built around it, sold to dealerships and to individual salespeople. The deliverable is exclusive local leads inside a territory you pick, plus the software that works them: texting, calling, follow up automation, desking and reporting.

The categories overlap in exactly three places. Both can produce leads. Both offer some form of landing page. Both report on marketing performance. Everywhere else they are doing different jobs, and a dealer who signs one expecting the other's outcome will be unhappy in about sixty days.

One line that has to be said plainly because it is a hard requirement for some stores: we are not an OEM certified CRM and we are not an approved OEM website provider. If manufacturer program compliance affects your money, that is not a gap we can talk you out of.

Worth being blunt about the economics, because this is what the general manager is actually weighing.

In an agency and website model, your spend splits between the platform fee, the managed service fee and the media itself. A reasonable question to ask, and one that separates vendors quickly, is what percentage of a dollar you hand over reaches the ad platform. There is nothing wrong with a management fee, and the good ones earn it, but you should know the number rather than infer it.

In our model you are buying two things: software and lead volume. CRM Only is $199 a month if you have your own lead sources and just want the system. Plans that include exclusive local leads start at $799, seller side acquisition programs from $999, and combined buyer and seller programs from $1,599. There is no media budget on top and no percentage of spend, because we are not placing your media. Full figures on the pricing page.

Neither model can honestly quote you a cost per sale in advance. We cannot guarantee lead counts, close rates or results, and any vendor who does is describing their best case as your average. What you can compare is fixed cost against fixed cost and then measure your own conversion honestly for ninety days.

Packaging changes. Confirm anything decisive directly with each vendor before you sign.

This is the sharpest difference and the one worth the most attention.

In the agency model, lead volume is a function of your site, your market and your budget. If traffic drops or a competitor outspends you, volume moves with it. You own the audience you built, which is a genuine long term asset, and nobody can take your organic visibility away from you at renewal.

In our model, you pick a territory around your store and leads submitted inside that zone are delivered to you exclusively. They are not resold to three other dealerships. There are 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 their car. Leads are a mix of VIN specific and open shoppers.

Be clear about what we do not do. Nothing is filtered, scored or quality checked. We ask pre screening questions at capture and deliver every submitted lead in the zone. Some of them will be shoppers with a budget that does not match the vehicle they asked about, and nearly all of them intend to negotiate, because that is how car buyers behave. What to expect from car sales leads explains that properly rather than apologizing for it. Problems are handled by post delivery replacement review.

Here is where the comparison usually decides itself, because this is where most stores lose the money they spent generating the lead in the first place.

Our CRM side covers the lead inbox and distribution rules, SMS and MMS with real threading, RCS messaging with 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 with recipient management, automations, follow up processes, drip campaigns with a drip editor, appointments, reminders, and desking covering loan and lease with a fifty state tax matrix, semimonthly payment frequency and trade credit caps. Deals carry to customer facing pages with e-signature so a shopper reads real numbers rather than a photograph of a worksheet.

Two tools dealers rarely expect: an email validator and a phone validator, built in, so a bulk send does not damage your sending reputation on stale data. Plus document reading with VIN scanning, and IVR with call routing through AutoMail so inbound calls get answered and directed instead of ringing out.

If a lead sits for four hours, none of the above matters and neither does the ad that produced it. That is why response time is the number to fix first, whichever vendor you pick. See response time and close rate.

Both models produce dashboards. The question is whether you can get underneath them.

What to demand from any marketing vendor: raw source detail rather than a rolled up summary, the ability to see individual leads with their source attached, and a number for media spend that separates fee from placement. A dashboard that only shows totals is a dashboard designed to be admired.

On our side, reporting comes in three layers: activity reporting for what individual people did, company reporting for store performance, and management reporting for the roll up across rooftops. The advantage is not the charts, it is that texting and calling happen inside the platform rather than on personal cell phones, so the activity data is real rather than self reported. Expect that to make your numbers look worse at first. The old ones were flattering.

Attribution across both models has the same honest limit. A customer who saw a display ad, searched your brand, called the store and walked in two weeks later cannot be cleanly assigned to one channel by anybody. Treat vendors claiming otherwise with suspicion. More at marketing attribution.

The most common real world outcome is not a swap. It is a split.

Keep the website and the manufacturer program advertising where they are, because those are hard requirements at a franchise point and because moving a site badly costs organic traffic that took years to build. Then move the lead generation and the CRM, so every lead from every source lands in one inbox with one follow up standard behind it.

That arrangement has a practical benefit beyond the software. It gives you a clean comparison. Leads produced by your site and your agency, and leads supplied by us, sitting in the same system with the same team, the same cadence and the same reporting. After ninety days you have your own answer about which produces better appointments in your market, which is worth more than either vendor's case study.

Nothing about the platform requires a DMS integration or an inventory feed. Neither is required, which is why brokers and individual salespeople run on it, and it means adding us alongside an existing website vendor is a small change rather than a project.

Pull four numbers before you sit through anything. Monthly unique traffic to your site. Site lead conversion rate. Median minutes to first response on an internet lead. Average follow up touches per lead before the trail goes cold.

If traffic is thin and conversion is fine, the website and advertising side is your problem and an agency model is the right spend. If traffic is fine and response and follow up are poor, more traffic will burn money on the same leak, and the lead handling layer is where to spend. Most stores that measure honestly find they are in the second group, which is uncomfortable and cheaper to fix.

Then ask both vendors the same questions and write the answers down. Total monthly cost with everything you actually need and the price at renewal. Contract length and cancellation process. Who owns the site, the creative, the phone numbers and the customer data, and what you can export. Whether leads are exclusive, how territory is defined, and what happens when one is bad. What support looks like at 6pm on a Saturday.

Ours: month to month with no long term contract, your data is yours, territory is drawn with you, and we cannot guarantee results. If you want to see it running, the demo is the fastest route, and the Sincro alternative page covers the switching side in more depth.

Are Sincro and LeadLocate really competitors?

Only partly. Sincro sits in the dealer website and managed digital marketing category. We supply exclusive local leads and a full CRM. They overlap on lead generation, landing pages and marketing reporting, and almost nowhere else.

Which one produces more leads?

No honest answer exists in advance. One grows the traffic you generate yourself, the other supplies volume in a territory. We cannot guarantee lead counts, and neither can any vendor. Run both for ninety days in one system and compare with your own numbers.

Can LeadLocate replace our dealership website?

No. We provide lead pages, personal salesperson websites, a live chat widget for your existing site and customer facing deal pages. We do not build or host a full dealer website and we are not an approved OEM website provider.

Do we have to give up managed advertising?

No. Many stores keep their agency and website vendor and move only the lead generation and CRM. Campaign control on our side is self serve through the Leads Manager zone editor and the paid ads module, which suits stores that want the controls themselves.

How is the territory for supplied leads defined?

You pick a zone around your store using the Leads Manager zone editor, and leads submitted inside it come to you exclusively rather than being resold. For groups, we map zones deliberately so two of your own rooftops are not competing for the same shopper.

What should we verify with each vendor before signing?

Total cost including renewal, contract length and cancellation, who owns the website, creative, phone numbers and customer data, what you can export, and for supplied leads whether they are exclusive and what happens when one is bad.

Put every lead from every source into one inbox with one follow up standard, then read the numbers after ninety days. Month to month, no long term contract.