The Cobalt Group on Jan. 31 unveiled its integrated family of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for the automotive retail industry at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention in Las Vegas.

Cobalt, a provider of CRM and e-business products and services to the dealer market, says it is the first technology provider the fully deliver on the promise of integrated CRM performance improvement strategies to every segment of the automotive industry, from single-point dealerships, to dealer groups, to enterprise-class solutions for large automotive manufacturer networks.

"Only Cobalt offers dealers and OEMs a complete suite of CRM solutions that are seamlessly integrated and backed by industry-leading training, consulting, and support," said John Holt, The Cobalt Group's president and CEO. "By using Cobalt CRM, our dealer customers have boosted their sales closing rates and increased employee productivity and customer CSI, all while reducing the cost of advertising."

Holt said Cobalt helps dealers implement comprehensive CRM strategies that successfully develop profitable, lifelong customer relationships. Cobalt's CRM solutions, which include Cobalt Prospector, Lead Manager Customer Central, and Media Tracker, combined with training and performance improvement strategies, result in a comprehensive business strategy for turning more prospects into sales, and more customers into repeat buyers, according to Holt.

"Cobalt Prospector is a great product," wrote Jim Mangano general manager at World Ford in Miami, Fla., speaking of Cobalt's flagship CRM product. Mangano wrote that he began using Prospector at World Ford of Kendall in July 2003. The month before getting Prospector, Mangano sold 221 vehicles. Three months after installing Prospector, Mangano wrote that his CSI ranking had sales had increasing dramatically. "We reached a record total of 322 vehicles delivered in September," Mangano wrote.

Lead Manager Customer Central is designed to offer lead management tools to help dealerships and auto manufacturers increase sales and profits. "Lead Manager is easy to use," said Chris Hanson, Internet manager at Hibbing Chrysler Center, a Five Star Chrysler dealership in Hibbing, Minn. "I'd recommend it to anybody who wants to sell more cars." Hanson, who first started using Lead Manager in early 2002, said he upped his closing ratio for online leads to 34.5 percent by the end of Q1 2003 using Lead Manager.