So I want to respond to all of you with my input so here goes!
@Sachin Raja - I calculate the Sold Percentage with raw data for that month. Knowing that leads can carry over and get sold in a different month than they came in, I do not adjust my reporting based on "did the lead come in last month or this month."
So I will take the 500 leads we received in August and count how many were sold. I take out the bad leads (Leads with 0 contact info and leads that were for a different department like Parts or Service) and then divide how many sold by how many leads I have remaining. I DO NOT alter leads so that phone ups who call in from a website ad get put into the system as an internet lead. I also DO NOT delete or remove leads that have had 0 response because I take it personal that I was not engaging enough to get someone to respond back to me.
All of this is based on ALL leads, not just new or used. Breaking down the information more to determine if we close higher on new vs. used or vice versa is very helpful, but for the sake of this post I will keep it generic.
@Jeff Kershner - Being first with QUALITY is most important. I don't want to see a 1 minute response time with a template email. I want to see a 3-5 minute response time with a quality email typed out and sent. Shortly after I would want to see another email sent with a video personalized to the customer with either the Product Specialist introducing themselves or the vehicle the customer had inquired on (or one that matches closely to it.)
In my opinion, always call first if there is a number then email, UNLESS the customer specifically requests "email only." As for chat, we have CarChat24 that handles our own website chat but are working on setting up chat on cars.com and autotrader for our BDC and ISM's.
@ddavis - Follow-up becomes less and less as the leads age. From David Kain's training we have a 2 week push and then Nurture Marketing after to help keep our name in front of the customer with less intrusive auto emails and occasional phone calls. For the leads that carry over from one month to the next (and sometimes further), there will be less pressure on the ISM / BDC to follow-up as consistently.
It takes about a week to go through an entire months leads. The next week I would hit the most recent stuff again (within past week) and then go to the previous month. Third week I would hit again the most recent stuff (within past week) and then hit two months back. Then on the next week I would hit all of my current month again and work on going back to the previous month once more.
Keep it on a rotation and constantly working to touch base with everyone. If I did not get a response from a customer, I would send them options on cars they did not inquire on just to see if they respond and to let them know of some specials we have. Why? Because you never know if their vehicle needs changed and they now need a 3 row SUV or Van instead of the sporty 2 door car.
BUT as a side note, 59 calls a day is easy for someone working the Internet. Even if I have 2 customers or even 3 in a day, I can still bust out 50-75 phone calls as I would normally be here for a 10 - 12 hour shift anyways. In between customers is when I make a handful of calls, send emails, do a video or two and then prepare for the next appointment.
