They say
“Tekion already reports gross by deal.”
We say
It does, and it has no record of the listing or advert that produced the customer.
For Tekion
Units sold is the one number every channel can win on.
Export closed deals from Tekion, upload the lead sources behind them, and rank channels on total gross rather than on units.
No API key Nothing to install in TekionNothing to install No card requiredNo card
CloseRev reads a Tekion export of closed deals — the customer's phone or email, the gross and the date — and matches it against the third-party listings, campaigns and calls that produced the lead. A dealership's profit is not the vehicle price: it is front gross, back-end product and the service relationship that follows, and channels differ on all three. Deals with no traceable lead are reported as Direct / Unknown.
Last checked against Tekion's own documentation on September 24, 2026.
The gap
The third-party listing sites all report leads and units. None of them reports what the deals were worth.
Tekion sees
What was sold, to whom, and for how much.
no shared row
Your ad account sees
The click, the keyword, the call, and what each one cost.
The file
What the export needs in it.
Three things carry the match: who, how much, and when. Anything else is optional and only changes how the report can be sliced.
- Needed
Customer phone or email
On the customer record. The phone number is the working key and the one third-party leads reliably carry.
- Needed
Front and back gross
Vehicle gross and finance and insurance product gross. Ranking on one of them alone gets the answer wrong in a predictable direction.
- Needed
Deal date
When the deal was closed. Keep the lead date too — third-party leads convert on a different clock from walk-ins.
- Optional
New, used or certified
Their gross structures are different enough that a blended average describes none of them.
Step by step
Getting the file out of Tekion.
Written for somebody with Tekion open in the next tab. Report names vary by edition, so each step says what to look for.
-
Export closed deals with gross
One row per deal with a customer contact detail, front and back gross, and the date.
-
Include both gross lines
A channel producing customers who buy products is worth materially more at the same vehicle price, and back gross is where that shows.
-
Export every lead source
Third-party listing sites, the dealership website, call tracking, paid search and social, and any manufacturer programme.
-
Take a year
Enough for seasonality to average out and for the service relationship to have started.
-
Upload both
The join runs on the phone and the email, normalised, with unmatched deals and unmatched leads both kept visible.
What comes back
The page Tekion cannot show you.
Revenue by channel, the count of sales behind each figure, and an honest bucket for the ones nobody could trace. Sample figures, from the worked example on the Auto Dealers page — not from a Tekion account.
Traced to a channel$429,00066% of $650,000
Sales matched142 of 210high confidence only
Average sale$3,090per paid sale
| Channel | Share | Sales | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | 62 | $188,500 | |
| Listing sites | 51 | $156,000 | |
| Meta Ads | 29 | $84,500 | |
| Direct / Unknown | 68 | $221,000 |
Unmatched sales stay in Direct / Unknown. They are never spread across the paid channels to make the total look better.
The argument
What changes when the deal and the ad share a row.
Units is the metric every channel can win and nobody can bank
Third-party listing sites are sold on lead volume and reported on units, and both numbers are available quickly, which is why they are used.
Neither says anything about what the deals were worth, and gross per deal varies enormously by where the customer came from.
A channel producing price-led shoppers who arrived having already compared four listings will deliver units at minimal front gross.
One producing customers who came for the dealership rather than the listing will deliver fewer units at a materially better gross, and lose every units-based comparison.
Ranking on total gross is a single change of column and it reorders most dealerships' source lists.
Back-end gross travels with the customer, not with the vehicle
Finance and insurance product penetration varies far more by customer type than by deal structure, and customer type varies by channel.
A file containing vehicle gross alone therefore understates exactly the channels that bring customers open to products, which are usually the more expensive channels.
Including back gross is one more column and it is the single most common reason a ranking changes when a dealership runs this properly.
It also puts a number on the argument between the sales floor and the marketing budget, which is otherwise conducted entirely on anecdote.
Where the export separates the two, the report shows both so the source of the difference is visible rather than merely the total.
The service relationship is the long half and it starts with the sale
A customer who returns for service for five years is worth considerably more than the deal, and whether they return is influenced by how they bought.
A shopper who drove ninety minutes for the lowest advertised price will service the car near home; somebody who bought locally will not.
Matching service revenue back to the acquiring channel over a longer window is the second report worth running, and it usually widens the gap the gross report opened.
It also changes what a dealership is willing to pay for a local customer, which is a strategic decision rather than a media-buying one.
The report keeps sale and service revenue separate so neither is silently credited to the other.
Walk-ins and repeat customers are not the absence of marketing
A large share of a dealership's business arrives with no digital trace: people who drove past, who bought here before, who were sent by a family member.
Left in Direct / Unknown that is honest but blunt, and it makes the paid channels look like a larger share of the business than they are.
A tracked number on the showroom line and a source field completed at the desk are enough to separate them, and both are cheap.
Knowing that a third of your deals are repeat customers changes the marketing plan far more than reordering the listing sites would.
Fair questions
“Tekion already does that.” Not quite.
They say
“The listing sites report our units.”
We say
They report units they can claim. Gross per deal is the number the dealership actually banks.
They say
“Back gross is the F&I office's business.”
We say
It is also a property of which customers arrive, and that is a marketing decision.
No. It reads an exported file, so your deals, inventory and customer records stay where they are.
Closed deals with a customer contact detail, front and back gross, and the date.
Because product penetration varies by customer type, and customer type varies by channel. It is the most common reason a ranking changes.
Yes, on total gross per deal rather than on units, which is the comparison they are not built to lose.
Yes, where the export carries it, and their gross structures differ enough to make a blended average misleading.
A second report over a longer window, kept separate from the sale so neither is credited to the other.
A year, so seasonality averages out and the service relationship has begun.
A tracked showroom number and a source field at the desk separate them from untraceable revenue, and both are cheap.
Reported separately from first purchases, and knowing the share is usually more useful than the channel ranking.
Any deal with no traceable lead. Its size is stated rather than distributed across the measurable sources.
A contact detail, gross figures and a date, plus a vehicle class if you include one. No VINs required, no credit applications, no finance terms. Encrypted in transit and at rest and deleted with the import.
Total gross per acquired customer by source, front and back shown separately, new and used apart, and everything unmatched kept visible.
By trade
Trades that run Tekion.
What the report looks like once the export is in, written for each one.
- Auto DealersWhich ads delivered units?
- Powersports DealersWhich channels produced sold units and gross?
- RV & Marine DealersWhich channels produced sold units and gross?
- Commercial Fleet SalesWhich channels produced fleet orders?
- Dealer & Distributor NetworksYou fund the advertising. They close the sale.
Other systems
Also worth reading.
Running more than one system, or comparing? The method is the same and the columns are not.
Closed-sales file DealerSocket Dealer groups Closed-sales file What to export Closed-sales file Tekmetric Auto repair shops Closed-sales file What to export Closed-sales file Shopmonkey Auto repair shops Closed-sales file What to export
All 97 systems 
Tekion and the other product names and logos on this page belong to their owners and are shown to identify the software a file comes from. CloseRev is not affiliated with or endorsed by them, and connects to none of them: it reads a file you export.
Start today
Two exports, and you will know.
Nothing to install in Tekion, no API key, and no need to have been tracking anything until now. Last year works as well as this month.