Switching From DealerClick

Which half of the system you are actually unhappy with decides everything about how this move should go.

DealerClick sells software that covers more than one job, and stores that say they want out are usually unhappy with one specific part of it. Before you shop anything, get precise about which part, because the answer changes what you should even be looking at.

If the problem is back office. Accounting, financing and loan servicing, forms and contract printing, title paperwork, month end. That is dealer management system territory. That layer stays with the system built for it, and the CRM connects to it on request. If those are your complaints, you are shopping for another back office system and this page will help you sequence that move cleanly.

If the problem is the front end. Leads sit unworked. Texting is clumsy or happens on personal phones so nothing is logged. Follow up dies after two touches. There is no real campaign capability. Reporting cannot tell you who responded first and who never called at all. That is a CRM and communication problem, and it is what we actually replace.

If the problem is that you have no lead flow. An empty pipeline needs a lead source as well as software. LeadLocate supplies both, so get clear on whether you are shopping for a new system, for customers, or for both.

Most stores that call us are in the second and third groups at once. They want the front end rebuilt and they want leads coming in the door, and they would rather not add a third vendor to do it.

DealerClick has been in the independent and buy here pay here market for a long time and is known for covering the whole operation from one place: dealer management functions alongside sales tools, with a customer base that skews toward independent used car stores and smaller operations. Stores that run it tend to run all of it, which is exactly why leaving is a bigger decision than swapping a CRM.

That breadth is why most stores keep the back office where it is. If your accounting, your financing side and your paperwork all live in one system that your office manager knows cold, there is no reason to disturb it. The smarter move is usually to keep the back office exactly where it is and add a front end that actually works, which is a much smaller change than a full migration.

Product packaging, module availability and pricing change over time, so confirm the current lineup, pricing and terms directly with each vendor before you decide. If you want the shorter version of this comparison, the DealerClick alternative page covers the same ground more briefly.

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.

Start with the boundary. General ledger, payables and receivables, payroll, bank reconciliation, deal posting, title processing, parts and repair orders stay in your dealer management system, connected to the CRM on request. If you need those, keep the dealer management system you run or replace it with another one. We sit next to it.

What we are is a lead generation platform with a full CRM built around it, sold month to month. The lead side delivers exclusive local leads inside a territory you pick, in 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. 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, so a bad lead costs you nothing.

The CRM side is where most of the daily work happens: lead inbox and distribution rules, SMS and MMS with RCS and automatic SMS fallback, a click to call dialer with a VoIP softphone, call recording with transcription, voicemail drop, email with a composer and inbox, bulk email, automations and follow up processes, drip campaigns, appointments and reminders, lead pages, personal salesperson websites, a free live chat widget for your site, and three layers of reporting.

There is also desking. Loan and lease, a fifty state tax matrix, semimonthly payment frequency, trade credit caps and three lease tax methods, with customer facing deal pages so a shopper sees their own numbers on a link instead of a photo of a worksheet. Detail is on the desking tool page.

Features and pricing change. Confirm anything that will drive your decision with each vendor directly before you sign.

Plenty of stores keep DealerClick for the back office and put LeadLocate on the front end. Keep the back office where it is if any of these describe your store.

• Your buy here pay here portfolio and loan servicing run through the system and moving them would put collections at risk.
• Your office manager runs your accounting inside it and there is no appetite for retraining the back office this year.
• Your forms, contracts and paperwork are configured the way your state and your lenders expect, and reproducing that elsewhere is a project nobody has time for.
• Your front end complaints are partly process complaints. Leads not worked and follow up dying on day three get fixed when new software is paired with a clear standard.
• You already have lead sources you like, and you want them worked in one inbox, with exclusive local leads added whenever you want more.

That fourth point deserves emphasis. The stores that gain the most pair a new front end with a follow up standard. LeadLocate makes every unworked lead visible, and managers who act on that visibility are the ones who see the numbers move.

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

• You want leads and CRM from one vendor on one bill rather than stitching two together yourself.
• You want exclusive local leads rather than shared internet leads that three stores are calling simultaneously.
• Your team communicates with customers on personal cell phones, so your reporting is fiction and your opt out records live nowhere.
• You want texting, calling, transcription and voicemail drop in one place, logged against the customer record automatically.
• Contract length is a sticking point and you want the freedom to leave if we stop earning it.
• You want individual salespeople to be able to run on the platform, not just the store.
• You do not have, or do not want to depend on, a DMS connection or an inventory feed. Neither is required to operate.

If you are a buy here pay here store keeping your back office and rebuilding the front, the BHPH CRM page covers that specific split in more detail.

The order you do this in matters more than the vendor you choose. What works, in sequence.

1. Get your export before you give notice. Leverage disappears the moment you cancel. Ask in writing what you can extract, in what format, and whether communication history comes with it.
2. Decide the boundary. Write down which system owns which job after the change: customer records, communication, desking, paperwork, accounting. Ambiguity here becomes an argument in month two.
3. Overlap deliberately. Plan on paying two vendors for a few weeks. Cutting over with no overlap is the single most common way stores lose leads during a change. There is a page on running two systems during migration if you want the mechanics.
4. Repoint your inputs. Every source that currently posts into your system has to be redirected: website forms, third party lead providers, chat, phone. Build the list before you start, not while you are live.
5. Pilot with a team, not the store. Three to four weeks with a few people, on real lead flow, before everyone moves. Month to month pricing exists so this is possible without a commitment.
6. Pull your historical reports. Whatever you want to compare against next year, export it while you still have access.

Our CRM migration checklist runs through this in order and is written to be used with any vendor.

The export conversation is where most switches go wrong, because dealers ask for their data and receive a spreadsheet of names and phone numbers with none of the context that made the database valuable.

Ask for these specifically, by name. Customer and prospect records with all contact fields. Notes and activity history against each record. Communication history, meaning the actual texts, emails and call logs rather than a count of them. Appointment history. Deal and worksheet records if the system holds them. Opt out and do not contact flags, which matter legally and are the field most often left behind. Vehicle interest and trade information. Source attribution, so you can still tell where a customer came from a year from now.

Then ask two follow up questions. What format, and is it a one time export or something you can run yourself? And who at the vendor is responsible if the export is incomplete? Getting a name is worth more than getting a promise. The data export checklist has the full list in a form you can hand to a vendor.

On our side, opt out status is the field to be most careful about. If a customer told your store to stop contacting them, that has to survive the migration. Import your suppression list into the blacklist before you send anything, not after.

Take these into every demo. The answers separate vendors faster than any feature grid.

What is the total monthly cost with every module I actually need, and what does it become at renewal? What is the contract length and what does cancelling involve? Exactly what can I export if I leave, in what format, and does it include communication history? Who owns the customer data? How long does implementation take and what does my store have to supply? What does support look like at six on a Saturday evening? If leads are included, are they exclusive to my store, and how is my territory drawn? What happens when a lead is bad?

Write down the answers. Vendors comfortable being pinned down in writing tend to be the ones still worth having in year three. If you want ours answered live, start with the demo, or contact us and ask directly. We cannot guarantee results, and we will give you a straight answer about exactly what the software does for your store.

Is LeadLocate a replacement for DealerClick?

For the CRM, communication, follow up and desking side, yes. Back office functions like accounting, financing and loan servicing stay in the dealer management system you run, which the CRM connects to on request, so keep it or replace it separately.

Can we keep our back office and only change the front end?

Yes, and for many independent stores that is the sensible move. It is a much smaller disruption than a full migration and it targets the part most stores are actually unhappy with.

Do we need a DMS integration or an inventory feed to start?

No. Neither is required, which is why brokers and individual salespeople can also run on the platform. If you do have an inventory feed, Inventory Link can ingest it and advertise your actual vehicles.

What happens to our buy here pay here loan servicing?

It stays where it is. Loan servicing, collections and portfolio accounting remain in the system you run today, and LeadLocate handles the customer conversations around them.

How long does the switch take?

Far less than a back office migration because your account is set up for you. The main variable is team adoption rather than setup, which is why we suggest running a small pilot team for three to four weeks first.

Can we run both systems during the transition?

Yes, and we recommend it. A few weeks of overlap costs less than the leads a hard cutover loses.

Tell us which part of your current setup is costing you deals and we will show you exactly what we replace and what we leave alone. Month to month, no long term contract. Call 844-376-2274.

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