I am going to jump in here and give you my take and assessment on this.
I'm pretty sure you don't need to be responding to leads at night anymore as there is no longer an incentive to respond within an hour -- unless I'm mistaken? Why are you still responding to leads at night? My understanding is that it used to be tied to SFE $$$ but I don't think that is the case anymore.
Your right, its not tied to SFE currently or required to be under a certain time. But let me ask you this, do you attend the meeting when the SFE facilitator comes to your store? If so you would know they are watching, they are scoring your store with everything when it comes to internet leads for sales and service being answered. Follow me here.
Just because there is no $$$ tieed to it does not mean that GM is not watching...
Amen!
Haha ok then. Well go ahead and respond to the leads during the middle of the night then if you're worried about big brother. But what do you think is more important -- response time or sales? And do you think you'll be able to give a better response to the prospect in the middle of the night (when they aren't expecting a response anyway) or when you've had the time to asses the situation during business hours?
Come on Kyle, you've got to know that SFE is a small part of it but it does matter. Its EBE that is the big picture, GM is expecting you to be "GREEN" in everything you do that they are tracking. I looked at your facility online (love the Google walk throughs) Lets say your facility was not compliant. Well, when the factory reps and Gensler comes knocking on your dealers door and telling him/her that you need to upgrade your facility image or else, you have no leg to stand on and negotiate certain things they want (like specific tile) if you haven't been doing all the things they have been "recommending" your dealership do. Leads are a small part, its other things as well like are you satisfying your market area sales, or is someone else pumping-in on top of you. Are you training and up to date on all your training. They are looking at your financial health, such as is your dealership at the standard or above it with your Net Working capital. Leads are a part of it, don't think for a second its not.
If any GM dealer does think for a minute they are not calculating everything you do and going to hold it over your head, then your wrong. That is exactly what they are doing. Building a case on weeding out the bad dealers and forcing all to comply to what the General wants. They still want a reduced dealer body, they cant eliminate dealers again like they did in the BK, but they can do it if you are not performing to their standards.
Thats my take on it. You can negotiate with them better when they require your dealer to do things they want better than you could if you fight everything and don't pay attention to the little things that add up!
