Looking For Second Chance Lead Providers, Any Ideas?

[SKNOPP]

Hey folks, I'm searching for some second chance lead providers. I have one now but even after they "scrub" the leads it seems all I get is too far into BHPH territory. Bank fees are killing me. I'm trying to find the crown jewel mid 500's fico. Any ideas or direction would be greatly appreciated and reciprocated.

 

[ddavis]

I have not tried to target special finance business. I always got plenty without any effort. They require much more effort and less profitable.

 

[yagoparamo]

Scott,

I don't know your market but CraigsList can be used to get good spifi leads.

Don;t advertise as F-Nissan but just use your spifi name (Frederick auto loans, etc), no price, a good--we finance ya'll--type of add, and link that to a landing page/ microsite/etc that is separate from the nissan store that has a solid 2-stage credit app and some spifi info.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

It's always fun when someone from your previous dealer group jumps in asking the same questions they (the dealer) were asking me months ago. One can only assume they're still asking the same questions while not executing on the game plane I set forth for them months ago to tackle 2nd change leads.

Scott, so you know - Steve (GM) has been asking this question for years now. I've made many suggestions as with the one below.

You want more second chance leads? - So you can sell more second chance customers.
And you're looking to do this without overspending your budget on 3rd party second chance leads and second chance keyword terms SEM campaign.

Only a small percentage of effective dealers get into (and stay) 2nd chance arena. For many reasons; it's a lot of work that takes one hell of a strong finance team, along with a great (few) car buyers that that can find the right vehicles that the banks will consider financing to the "Get Me Done" customers.

If you're looking for 3rd Party Leads, these are two I would check out (though im not endorsing anyone here - there could be other options available).

1. Give Jeff Raab a call over at https://www.detroittradingexchange.com/ see what he has offer.
2. BluSky Marketing has a decent program coupled with AVA lead nurturing for second chance leads (the lead quality seems to go up and down from month to month but I've seen some strong months overall.)

Be sure to read this thread http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/special-finance-leads-919.html for some more opinions about 3rd party 2nd chance leads.

On top of having 3rd party leads in your mix, I recommend having a strategy behind acquiring your own home grown leads with

1. Minimal credit app landing page (video can help increase the forum conversion)
2. GEObranded URL - LocalTownCarCredit.com
3. 15 second TV commercial that speaks to the potential 2nd chance customer while directing them to your LocalTownCarCredit.com landing page

This strategy / campaign can be extremely effective for acquiring a substantial amount of good quality local 2nd chance leads. Your commercials (when the message is right) WILL drive traffic to your landing pages. The better and more direct your landing page is designed, the higher the credit application lead conversions are.

Your landing page is really nothing more than a credit application. I recommend NOT mentioning the dealership or at the very least, keep it to a minimal. Many consumers will believe there are local banks behind the ad and page (technically they are, the bank just so happens to be located at your dealer)


LocalTownCarCredit.com



If you're in a Comcast area, you can purchase several LocalTownCarCredit URLs and run the corresponding commercials using their geographic targeting service Adtag / Adcopy.

FrederickTownCarCredit.com



Your Ad Spend shouldn't get too out of hand with 15 second commercial. Many times, they could be used as fillers (free ads).

Track your leads - quality of leads - and 2nd chance sold (it's rare the ROI doesn't make sense)
Track the average credit score by GEO to Close if you can, this can help with your TV Buy by GEO.

Anyone else doing this with great success?
Anything to add here?

 

[SKNOPP]

Thanks Jeff. Steve and I have talked about some of this. We are currently using blueSky and upped the lead count to 100 for the month of March. My closing ratio for February was 10.44%. March closing ratio so far is 5.1%. The leads I'm getting from blueSky this month have significantly more challenges I can't overcome. I have done some ads in Craigslist directing them to our second chance website but with little success. I am considering diversification of the lead sources. I was thinking of getting 30-40 leads from three different sources such as Dealerlink, AutoUsa and blueSky and monitoring each of their quality. I was also considering the Roadloans program with Santander since we already use them quite a bit anyway. As far as marketing goes, I have spoken to a friend who is a finance director with another dealer and he suggested doing mailers with CapitalOne and RadiusMarketing. Yes we are a Diamond dealer with CapOne.

Your thoughts on my plan?

Scott

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Three different leads sources typically results in increased management of duplicate leads. IMO - more work than what it's worth. Something you would need to be keep an eye in of you go down that route.


I've done the Cap mailers with little to below average results. The quality of the lists and message will sway the results. If and when results are average to above you better be logistically prepared (process, people, inventory, etc).


I would ask my friend "why" he suggests it. Anyone can suggest anything.

 

[ddavis]

Anyone can suggest anything.

And most do.

Years ago, when I was responsible for our in-house advertising agency, everyone was an advertising critic. Now, everyone is an internet critic. Back then, they didn't know a damn thing ....nothing has changed.

 

[SKNOPP]

OK. Jeff and ddavis, with that being said, who is doing second chance finance successfully and exactly what are they doing? We have the dedicated web site for second chance applications and are currently purchasing 100 leads per month. How do I get this department to 20 units per month and $40k in gross?

 

[Kelly Wilson]

Scott, 3rd party leads typically close much lower than organic leads. That said, along with the fact the (as Jeff said) there are good and bad months; how many leads would you need at your current closing rates to get to where you want to be? February, with tax returns can be strong - the same with March. But what is the long term closing rate running average?

II'm at a dealer where "Special" customers from online apps and purchased Bluesky leads are into a separate "Special Finance Department" along with anything on the floor under 625ish. They've done mailers, trigger leads, carloan leads, Cap1 events and more. They have 2 guys that do calls and show cars, the manager has 90% authority to make the numbers dance to get the metal moved. The hardest part for us is being in the inventory in such a way to take on the loans. Our SpFi people run the score and possible sales leads are worked 3-5 days at most by their manager's choice. They put in for 250 leads a month, and we do see a 3-5 month recycle on about 30% of the leads in the CRM.

Also B2B and traditional ads in the right places can gain a good amount of traffic. I've even seen guys build relationships (via birddogs) with people at buyherepayhere lots to get their better paper in the door.