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Lead-to-appointment set ratios. Internet/Phone ups

I can tell you that the industry average is a 50% close rate on appointments that show. I've seen data to back this up.

Just seems so low to me... where do the sales people go wrong?

This is a captive audience... interested in your product and trusting you enough to come in.

Now of course there are things you cannot control (credit, inventory, etc) but I would say if you have the type of vehicle they are looking for (and you should if they are there) and they can get approved why aren't they being delivered?

Maybe in the past when people really did come down just to see what you had on the lot, now they know almost all of your inventory and pricing before you even talk to them.... if they are coming in to see you they are prepared to be sold right then and there.
 
I can tell you that the industry average is a 50% close rate on appointments that show. I've seen data to back this up.


Industry avg for close rate to total leads is less than 20% as well. It is probably close to 10%. To get to a 20% net close rate you have to be better than the avg. If a salesperson handles the lead you will have a lot higher close rate for your shows than a CRC person. A 65%-75% show close rate for both is something that is achievable for a good internet department.
 
Just seems so low to me... where do the sales people go wrong?

Not enough for the trade is a common one. People need to educate themselves and decide to shop around. They see the payment and decide it's more than they wanted to spend. Lot's of reasons why they don't buy on the first visit. Believe it or not, but some salespeople will actually demotivate the customer from buying.

Jason,

I once had a GM swear to me his closing ratio was 40% on all walk-ins. I made a friendly wager with him and then spent a Thursday, Friday & Saturday counting his ups. When it was all said and done, my tally sheet had 34 ups and his CRM only had 16. And I did not count the service customers who ventured into his showroom. When it was all said and done his actual closing ratio was 18%.

One of the common reasons why I might see a high close rate on appointments is due to the fact that salespeople won't always go in the CRM and close out the appointment if the customer showed. So it looks as though the customer was a "no show" when in fact they did show. So if they came in and didn't buy, it's not properly being counted in the numbers. I see that a lot.

If a salesperson handles the lead you will have a lot higher close rate for your shows than a CRC person.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I would have to disagree with that statement. If the CRC/BDC person is making the appointment for a manager it can be the other way around. The manager greets the customer, then hands the customer to the best salesperson available. Before choosing the salesperson, the manager needs to get a feel for the customer and then choose the salesperson who would best match up with that customer. Let's say the customer is looking at a Honda Pilot, maybe the dealership has one salesperson who does a better presentation on Pilots than all the other reps. Guess who's getting that customer. You can also be assured that it's not going to be a green pea. If the manager then has to T.O. the deal, they already have a relationship with the customer and it's an easier close. That type of process will yield very nice results.
 
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Industry avg for close rate to total leads is less than 20% as well. It is probably close to 10%.

If you take out your duplicates, bad leads, and non sales leads - I am sure it will be, or should be, closer to 20%. Why would we count those? It would be like counting a service customer as an "up" in your logs, just becuase they were browsing the inventory while waiting for an oil change on their 3 month old car.
 
Not enough for the trade is a common one. People need to educate themselves and decide to shop around. They see the payment and decide it's more than they wanted to spend. Lot's of reasons why they don't buy on the first visit. Believe it or not, but some salespeople will actually demotivate the customer from buying.

Jason,

I once had a GM swear to me his closing ratio was 40% on all walk-ins. I made a friendly wager with him and then spent a Thursday, Friday & Saturday counting his ups. When it was all said and done, my tally sheet had 34 ups and his CRM only had 16. And I did not count the service customers who ventured into his showroom. When it was all said and done his actual closing ratio was 18%.

One of the common reasons why I might see a high close rate on appointments is due to the fact that salespeople won't always go in the CRM and close out the appointment if the customer showed. So it looks as though the customer was a "no show" when in fact they did show. So if they came in and didn't buy, it's not properly being counted in the numbers. I see that a lot.



Please don't take this the wrong way, but I would have to disagree with that statement. If the CRC/BDC person is making the appointment for a manager it can be the other way around. The manager greets the customer, then hands the customer to the best salesperson available. Before choosing the salesperson, the manager needs to get a feel for the customer and then choose the salesperson who would best match up with that customer. Let's say the customer is looking at a Honda Pilot, maybe the dealership has one salesperson who does a better presentation on Pilots than all the other reps. Guess who's getting that customer. You can also be assured that it's not going to be a green pea. If the manager then has to T.O. the deal, they already have a relationship with the customer and it's an easier close. That type of process will yield very nice results.

The managers here manage the CRM so we don't miss much..As for the CRC vs Salesperson...we have both here and the close rate is alway better with the salesperson.
 
As I am sure you have figured out by everyones posts, everyone has a different idea on what closing ratios should be. I can tell you from personal experience in the last store I ran my BDC averaged 63% appt. to call ratio on incoming sales calls and about 70% of them showed and we closed on average 45-50% of the 70% that showed. (This was a Honda Store)

As far as internet leads go we closed between 18-22% of the leads. On average in the country most dealerships close 6-8% of their leads. When we first started we sold around the national average and continued to tweak our process until we found what worked for us until we arrived at the 18-22%.

As far as what your store should do, It would be awful arrogant of me to throw a blanket number out there. I help stores build BDC's around the country and I can tell you that every market is different and its all about slow gains and hold 'em. There are so many variables to the internet game now, it takes a lot of trial and error unfortunately in order to figure out what will work for you.