Westlake Village, Calif.—5square.com recently announced the results of a study of deal process time using its sales system. Results indicated a dramatic reduction in process time. In a 12-month period, time from write-up to close fell from 1.37 hours to .77 hours.

The study was based on data measured by each dealership’s Dealer Management System (DMS) and by the 5square sales process. The sales process system blueprints each dealer’s preferred sales process into software, and then guides every deal through that process. 5square.com’s Dealership Analytics integrates both sets of data into one data warehouse in order to analyze trends and opportunities.

The variation in dealership processes was evident in the raw deal times per dealership, which ranged from 30 to 90 minutes. According to the survey, in 30-minute deals, Internet departments were typically using the 5square.com system to essentially close on the phone, and the buyer was coming in for the F&I presentation. In the 90-minute deals, the system was used for more traditional sales mechanisms. No matter which form of selling was used, every dealership in the study saw a reduction in process time.

The study examined over 21,000 sales transactions.