# Sales pipeline for car dealers: kanban that fits auto retail

> A generic CRM pipeline has stages like 'qualified' and 'proposal sent'. That doesn't work for a car dealership. Car sales have their own steps, test drive, trade-in, finance, registration, and they all need to be visible as cards on a kanban board, so no customer stands still for a week while the salesperson waits for a finance answer.

**Source:** https://carruslink.com/en/guides/salgspipeline-bilforhandler
**Last updated:** 2026-06-04

## Short answer (TL;DR)

A car-dealer pipeline has 7 stages: new lead → qualified → test drive booked → test drive completed → offer + finance → contract signed → delivered. Each deal is a card with customer, car, trade-in, finance, deadlines and assigned salesperson. The kanban view lets the manager see the whole dealership in 5 sec, the salespeople see their own daily list, and no deal stalls.

## What car sales without a pipeline looks like

- Salespeople know what they have, but nobody knows what the dealership has in total
- Manager can't see whether there are 12 or 40 open deals, or which are stuck
- Deals stall for a week because 'I'm waiting on finance', without anyone noticing
- Monthly targets are based on gut feel, not pipeline value
- When a salesperson goes on holiday or quits, their deals vanish into a black box
- Excel pipeline doesn't work, trade-in, finance and registration don't fit on one row

## 7-stage sales pipeline for car dealers

### 1. New lead

All new enquiries from listing portals, website, phone or walk-in land here. Each card has source, timestamp, vehicle interest and responsible salesperson. SLA: must leave this stage within 24 hours.

### 2. Qualified

Salesperson has spoken with the customer, the lead is real, a specific car or car type is in play, there's a budget and a timeline. Unqualified leads move to a 'nurture' flow with automated 6-12-24 month follow-up, not in the pipeline.

### 3. Test drive booked

Concrete time on the calendar, demo car reserved, customer confirmed. Card shows date, salesperson and car. When the day arrives, the card moves on automatically or is flagged as no-show.

### 4. Test drive completed

Customer has driven the car. Now the critical 24-72 hours start, where the deal is won or lost. The card has a follow-up deadline and trade-in status if relevant.

### 5. Offer + finance

Offer sent, finance example ready, trade-in valuation given. The card shows offer amount, trade-in amount, finance rate and what the customer still needs to accept. A card stuck here for over 14 days without movement pops as red.

### 6. Contract signed

Deal closed, contract signed (digitally via MitID, or on paper). Car is taken out of the listings automatically, registration process kicked off, delivery date set.

### 7. Delivered

Car delivered, plates on, customer has the keys. The card is closed and moved to the 'after-sale' flow: service contract offer, trade-in follow-up at 36 months, NPS survey. The pipeline stage ends, but the customer relationship begins.

## What you get when the pipeline is visual and live

- **Kanban board for the whole dealership** — Manager sees every open deal on one screen: count per stage, total pipeline value, and where it's stuck.
- **Per-salesperson daily list** — Each salesperson sees their own cards with deadlines and next action. No more Excel tabs and mental to-do lists.
- **Pipeline value per week and month** — Weighted expected revenue (offer × win rate). Monthly targets based on real numbers, not guesses.
- **Filter by brand, salesperson and car type** — See only BMW deals, only Peter's deals, or only deals above DKK 300,000. Practical for weekly sales meetings.
- **Automatic moves and alerts** — Cards move themselves when events fire (drive completed, contract signed). If a card sits too long, alert.
- **Conversion per stage and salesperson** — Where in the pipeline do you lose the most? Which salesperson is strong on drive-to-offer but weak on offer-to-deal? Data-driven coaching.

## Generic CRM pipeline vs car-dealer pipeline

| Area | Generic CRM (HubSpot, Pipedrive) | Car dealer pipeline (CARRUSLiNK) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Stages | Qualified, offer, closed | Lead, qualified, drive booked, driven, offer, signed, delivered |
| Card fields | Contact, company, amount | Customer, car, trade-in, finance, registration, demo car, salesperson |
| Trade-in | Doesn't exist | Own field, valuation status and refurbishment if needed |
| Finance | Doesn't exist | Concrete example, status and provider response |
| Demo car reservation | Doesn't exist | Linked to the drive card, reserved automatically |
| Registration / DMR | Doesn't exist | Own step with Danish DMR status |
| Salesperson handover | Manual transfer | Automatic history, nothing lost |
| Monthly report | Generic pipeline value | By brand, salesperson, lead source and car type |

_CARRUSLiNK is built specifically for independent car dealers. Generic CRMs like HubSpot and Pipedrive lack the car-specific objects (trade-in, demo fleet, DMR, per-deal finance)._

## Frequently asked questions about sales pipeline for car dealers

### What is a sales pipeline for a car dealer?

A visual overview of every open deal, split by stage (new lead → qualified → drive booked → driven → offer → signed → delivered), where each deal is a card with customer, car, trade-in, finance and deadlines. The pipeline lets the manager see the whole dealership on one screen and salespeople work from their own daily list.

### What's the difference between a kanban board and a list view?

Kanban shows the cards in columns per stage, so you see flow and bottlenecks visually. A list just shows rows. For car sales, where the deal moves through 7 steps with different types of work, kanban gives a faster overview. CARRUSLiNK supports both, kanban for daily flow, list for filtering and export.

### How many stages should a car-dealer pipeline have?

Between 5 and 9. Too few (3-4) makes loss analysis impossible, too many (10+) makes maintenance heavy. Standard for Danish car dealers is 7 stages: new lead, qualified, drive booked, driven, offer + finance, signed, delivered. You can adjust names and order in CARRUSLiNK.

### Should service contracts live in the same pipeline as car sales?

No. Service contracts have their own logic (offer → signature → billing → renewal) and should have their own pipeline. CARRUSLiNK has separate pipelines for car sales and service contracts but links them so a car sale automatically triggers a service contract offer in the other pipeline.

### How do you keep deals from getting stuck in the pipeline?

Three measures: 1) SLA per stage (a new lead must leave 'new' within 24 hours, an offer must be followed up within 14 days), 2) Automatic red-flagging of cards that overshoot SLA, 3) Weekly pipeline-review meeting where red cards are reviewed. Without these three, 30-40% of pipeline ends up in 'limbo' within 60 days.

### Can you have multiple pipelines in parallel?

Yes, and it's often needed. Typically a larger dealer has 3 pipelines: used cars, new cars, and leasing/fleet. Each pipeline has its own stages, salespeople and conversion targets. In CARRUSLiNK the salesperson switches pipeline with one click, and the manager can view all or one at a time.

### How much info should a card hold?

Just enough for the salesperson to decide without clicking in: customer name, car, amount, deadline, status (red/yellow/green). Details (contract, finance, trade-in valuation) sit one click away. Overcrowded cards make the board unreadable, empty cards add nothing over an Excel row.

### How do you measure whether the pipeline is working?

Three KPIs: 1) Conversion per stage (where in the funnel do you lose most?), 2) Average time in stage (is flow happening or are deals stalling?), 3) Pipeline value vs actual revenue (how accurate is the forecast?). CARRUSLiNK calculates all three automatically and shows trend over time.

### Should salespeople see each other's pipeline?

Depends on culture. The winning model is transparent: every salesperson sees the whole dealership's pipeline (but only their own is their responsibility). It creates healthy competition, prevents duplicate lead handling, and lets salespeople take over each other's customers on sick days without friction. CARRUSLiNK lets you control access per role if you want.

### How long does it take to set up a car-dealer pipeline?

1 week setup, 2-4 weeks adoption. We configure stages, card fields, SLA rules and automations in CARRUSLiNK based on how you actually work today, import open deals from your current system or Excel, and train the salespeople on the daily rhythm: daily list in the morning, pipeline board at the weekly meeting.

## See your pipeline with your own deals

30-minute demo. We import your open deals from Excel or your current system and show the kanban board live, so you can see how many deals are stuck right now, and how many will close this month.

— CARRUSLiNK · https://carruslink.com/en/guides/salgspipeline-bilforhandler