How many leads can an Internet Manager handle, effectively?

[ddavis]

We are trying something a little different at a couple of my stores. Our Internet Manager's receive about 150-175 leads per month, but those leads are transfered to our BDC after 45 days for long term follow up. They don't seem to have a problem staying after them aggressively and we still have solid long term follow up out to about 180 days.

I have never worked in a store that had a BDC for sales. My understanding is that they are hourly people. I had a lot of confidence in our ISMs. I also worked very hard to make sure that the leads were high quality. I wanted the best people in the store working my leads but I didn't want them overwhelmed to the point where they cherry picked.

Nobody has answered the question of how many phone calls to you expect your ISMs to make on a daily basis? How do you confirm it?

[yagoparamo]

Nobody has answered the question of how many phone calls to you expect your ISMs to make on a daily basis? How do you confirm it?

It depends; a normal person or Jeff Keshner with 3 arms and 3 ears?

[ddavis]

It depends; a normal person or Jeff Keshner with 3 arms and 3 ears?

jeff-avatar1.jpg

I hadn't noticed but there does seem to be a lot of shading on the right side of the picture.

[JoePistell]

What a fantastic thread! TY DD for starting it!

Question:
I sell used cars. If you sold 100% used cars, would your numbers change?
--# Leads per ISM
--Closing Ratio Goals

[JoePistell]

Email Leads with Phone Numbers vs. Leads with out phone numbers...

Because our team is so poor at working emails, I make phone numbers required on our forms. I know if I turn that feature off, the flood gates will open (lead counts will rise). I also know that those people that agreed to include their phone number will opt out if given the chance. This will negatively impact our current sales flow.


What are your thoughts and findings on this issue?

[jeremys]

We require name, phone #, and email. Not sure if that's overkill or not, but I believe the number of quality leads have gone up. There are still of course the fake names, numbers and emails here and there, But if someone is serious about it, they'll usually at least give some of the correct information. I don't have exact numbers in front of me, but that's how it seems to be once we implemented required fields opposed to having the flood gates open.

[ddavis]

Email Leads with Phone Numbers vs. Leads with out phone numbers...

Because our team is so poor at working emails, I make phone numbers required on our forms. I know if I turn that feature off, the flood gates will open (lead counts will rise). I also know that those people that agreed to include their phone number will opt out if given the chance. This will negatively impact our current sales flow.


What are your thoughts and findings on this issue?

I found it easier to move the needle on new cars. Many dealers do a much better job at marketing their used cars.

Joe, you took a much easier question (lead counts) and turned it into a much more difficult one.

Do we want to eliminate potential customers because we feel they are are low percentage? Are your ISMs really doing a poor job with emails or are phone calls more effective? Will serious customers include a phone number, if required? Will the same customer not include the phone number if it's not necessary? This would turn a great lead into a marginal one.

[ddavis]

As we improved the marketing on our website and third party sites, our lead counts increased. We had more issues with people, desks, computers and phones. I opted for quality leads.

[colson]

In my stores the Internet Department handle all inbound Internet sourced calls and emails. As far as leads go we shoot for 60-80 leads per ISM, supplemented with calls. I think JK is spot on. I do have a couple people who have shown, month in month out, an abbility to close at a higher rate and we're able to compensate them with more opportunities than some of our lower performing ISMs.

We've now gotten away from 3rd party leads altogether, and are mixing in AutoAlert opportunities to supplement. So far so good. With internet leads, one thing is for sure..."Less is more."

[Alex Snyder]

There are two big things not being discussed here:

1. Leadership skills
2. Hiring skills