Dealership insights
Columbia Powersports Case Study: How a Tennessee Dealer Found Satisfaction With the PSX Platform
In 2019, Columbia Powersports in Tennessee replaced an automotive CRM with PSX. Its sales manager on adoption, follow-up, manager visibility and retention.
Quick answer
In 2019, Columbia Powersports in Tennessee replaced a CRM built for car dealers with the PSX platform to fix sales follow-up and unit management. Sales Manager Willie Phillips reported that resistance faded in a week or two, managers could read deal notes instead of asking, and follow-up ran from first contact to a post-sale call.
In the summer of 2019, Willie Phillips, Sales Manager at Columbia Powersports in Tennessee, sat down with PSX to talk about the store's switch to PSX's CXMAi platform. This page keeps what he said, word for word, and adds what another dealer can take from it. It is a dated account of 2019, not a statement about the store today.
It is written for dealer principals and sales managers weighing a CRM change. For the mechanics, such as data export and cut-over day, see how to switch dealership CRM systems. This page covers the people side.
Columbia Powersports at a glance
| Item | What the 2019 case study recorded |
|---|---|
| Dealership | Columbia Powersports, Tennessee |
| Spokesperson | Willie Phillips, Sales Manager |
| Year | 2019 |
| Previous system | A CRM "built for an automotive market" |
| Goals for the change | 1. Sales follow-up process. 2. Units and inventory management |
| Units named | RZRs, Sea-Doos, motorcycles, boats and Jet Skis |
| PSX platform | CXMAi, with the 2019 PSXDigital mobile app |
| Adoption time | "a week or two" (dealer-reported, 2019) |
The problem: a car-dealer CRM in a powersports store
Columbia Powersports knew it needed a new CRM. The store wanted two things fixed: the sales follow-up process, and how it managed units and inventory. Willie explained why the old system fell short:
"Our last CRM was built for an automotive market and not based on the Powersports industry. So we chose PSX because it was created for this type of market. It integrates well with our RZRs, Sea-Doos, motorcycles, boats and Jet Skis - the things that we do in this market."
The point is fit: a system built around the units the store actually sells.
Getting the team through the change
Willie did not pretend the switch was painless. He said acceptance of change was the key:
"When there is a change or a new system put into the store, everyone is resistant. It takes a week or two, but eventually, everybody will agree to the change. Once you accept the change, then the process becomes a little bit easier."
Later in the conversation he explained how he kept the team with him:
"I said before that nobody likes change. But, if you make it fun, if you make it exciting, and you make it pretty simple, then salesperson retention is the easy part! If you make the process enjoyable then they'll enjoy it. When they accept it, then it makes it easier to put the process in place. And the process never changes. We've had the same process since day one and we'll have the same process throughout."
Follow-up from first contact to the post-sale call
The store lacked technology to support follow-up, which risked lost sales. Willie also wanted the conversation to continue after the sale:
"In Sales, the most important part is the follow-up; either after the sale or during the sale. The customer wants the salesperson to at least acknowledge him through the whole sales process, from beginning to middle to end.
And then it's always good to have that post-sale phone call like, "Hi, how are you enjoying your new toy?" That's what I call them - I call them toys. This is what they are. This is what we do on the weekends; we ride up mountains, dirt roads, through creeks and we get out on lakes and oceans. So, it's a toy. You obviously want to make sure they enjoy their toy!"
What managers could see
Call, email and text tools were built into the CRM in 2019. For Willie, the benefit was that the record told the story of each deal:
"The communication part of the system actually allows the manager to be more in-tuned to what the salesperson is involved with, what the customer is looking for, and the type of questions they are asking.
So I don't have to ask the salesperson these questions, I can actually pull up the notes in the system, and see where they are at on the deal. If the salesperson is off that day, we know where he's at on the deal and we know what needs to be done to close it."
That only works if salespeople write good notes. It is the same discipline we describe in the sales manager's CRM dashboard.
Staff and customer retention
Willie linked the system to keeping salespeople, not only customers:
"Sales is stressful. But whenever you've got in a system that allows salespeople to follow-up in a timely manner and can rely on ALMA to assist with leads and calls when they are with a customer - it puts things at ease."
He saw customer retention as the source of future sales:
"If my customer retents in five years, the impact on my salespeople will be the benefit of a big database; a lot of sales, a lot of referrals, and a lot of happy salespeople. I'll probably have a bigger showroom than what I've got now. We'll just keep doing a good job and progressing forward so that we can continue to do a good job towards impacting the community."
Willie's recommendation
His recommendation to other dealers was about seeing the store from anywhere:
"If I'm an elevator with another Polaris or other brand dealer, I just pull out my cell phone and go to the PSXDigital app to show them, "Hey, I'm away from my store, but I know what everybody's doing. I'm not at the store, but I know what we sold. I'm not at the store, but I know who's working. I'm not at the store, but I know exactly what's going on without having to be there."
Before and after, as the dealer reported it
| Area | Before (2019) | After (dealer-reported, 2019) |
|---|---|---|
| CRM fit | Built for an automotive market | Chosen because it was "created for this type of market" |
| Team adoption | Everyone resistant to a new system | Agreement after "a week or two" |
| Follow-up | Little technology supporting sales follow-up | Follow-up "from beginning to middle to end", then a post-sale call |
| Manager visibility | Manager had to ask salespeople where deals stood | Manager reads notes in the system, even on a salesperson's day off |
| Staff stress | "Sales is stressful" | Timely follow-up "puts things at ease" |
The case study reported no figures for sales, close rates or retention, so none are given here.
Why the adoption lesson matters more than the software
Most CRM case studies talk about features. Willie spent most of his time on whether people would use the system, which matches a well-known idea in technology research.
The Technology Acceptance Model, first developed by Fred Davis in a 1985 MIT dissertation, holds that people adopt a technology when they believe it does something useful (perceived usefulness) and that it is easy to use (perceived ease of use), as MeasuringU's summary puts it. Willie's two rules line up with it. "Make it pretty simple" is ease of use. A manager who can see the deal without asking, and a salesperson who stops worrying about missed follow-up, are usefulness.
His third rule is the one stores skip: "the process never changes." A process that shifts every month gives salespeople a reason to stop trusting the system. Our CRM buy-in guide for salespeople plans the people side step by step.
A checklist for your own CRM switch
Use these steps, drawn from Willie's account, before and during a change:
- Name the problems you are fixing. Columbia named two. Judge the new system against them, not a feature list.
- Check the fit with what you sell. Confirm the CRM records your unit types well.
- Expect resistance and give it a deadline. Willie saw it fade in a week or two. Check in at the end of yours.
- Keep it simple at the start. Turn on what solves your named problems first.
- Write one follow-up process and do not change it. Include the touches during the sale and a post-sale call.
- Require notes a manager can read. The test: could another salesperson pick up the deal on the original salesperson's day off?
- Review deals from the notes, not by asking.
- Plan for owners, not only buyers. Keep talking after delivery; our owner retention program guide has a plan.
What has changed since 2019
PSX's products are now presented under the PSX Ascend name. Here is what the live product pages say today:
- CRM. The AI-powered powersports CRM "operates within the connected CXMAi platform", bringing together customer intelligence, inventory context, marketing and dealership performance workflows, and connects shoppers across phone, text and email.
- ALMA is the Automated Lead Management Assistant. It does not make AI voice calls. It prompts live connections between customers and sales associates, and takes over re-engaging stalled prospects after a short period of active associate follow-up.
- Notes and manager review, which Willie relied on, are now part of the follow-up model PSX promotes: associates leave detailed notes and accurate dispositions, and managers are prompted to take a final look at stalled deals.
- Inventory. The inventory management tools cover capture, appraisal, pricing, merchandising, aging visibility and syndication, with a guided mobile workflow for photographing units.
The PSXDigital app Willie showed other dealers was the 2019 product. We do not describe a PSX CRM mobile app here because we have not confirmed what is offered today. For another 2019 view, from a Colorado sales manager who compared five areas after switching, read the G-Force Powersports dealer success story.
You can also see the same AI-powered powersports CRM on our sister site, PSXDigital's AI-powered powersports CRM page.