Any help is useful! BDC/Internet Dept needs work...

[Mel]

I am new to the boards, so please forgive if I am posting this in the wrong place. I was wondering if you guys could give me a bit of insight into Internet Leads. I was recently tasked with improving our internet department... we've got a way to go...

Right now, we are receiving about 250-275 leads per month and are closing 12-14%, 34 units/month, give or take. The staff is designed as a BDC department, with just about all of them working part time and students at the local university. The problem is that we only have 4 people on staff and they are heavily dependent on templates for emails (don't even get me started). The first thing I am doing is hiring a few more people, which will be done by the end of the month. The leads come in through our website, the national website, Zag (barely get 5/month), cars.com (barely 10/month) and dealercentric (nothing so far).

I am thinking it is about time to cut those and I would like to replace them with other providers. Do you guys have any good recommendations as to where I could start for new providers?

The end result would be to raise sales to at least a solid 15% by April through better lead sources and training (perhaps a new staff/ more staff as well). I am trying to set up a proper plan of action but it seems like there is a lot of work to do and I am a bit lost.

Any help is appreciated. thanks!

 

[Dave Erickson]

Hi Mel, If it were me I'd probably put replacing lead providers to increase the the closing ratio on hold until I baselined the entire operation and processes and found areas that need improvement first. If your BDC reps have been updating the CRM then this will make the job a lot easier. If not, then I'd start there so you can start tracking the activity (or lack of it) that leads to appointments they set, appointments confirmed, appointments that show and that are sold. With that data you should start noticing some areas where things seem to start to fall apart.
You may also notice how these results differ with different lead providers. Perhaps even look at ways of altering your process for those providers before dropping them or even adjusting your lead radius with some providers to lower your costs and increase the effectiveness of your team so they are working with higher quality prospects at a more personalized level with more contact attempts.

 

[ddavis]

Melanie, welcome to DealerRefresh. What percentage of your internet business is coming from Used Cars? I noticed that you didn't mention AutoTrader.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Make sure you have a great process in place. And personalize those e-mails, add a video!

 

[danmichaeli]

I concur with Dave E. in that first things first.. you can't change what you don't measure. Tracking and baselining the performance of the different lead sources is a great start. After that it may be a good idea to rotate some of the third party providers out and test out some new ones to compare performance.


I tend to favor internet strategies that emphasize your website the most. Visitors that have made it to your site are way down in the funnel- they know what car (or type of car at least) they are looking for and a general (or specific) geography where they will buy. I encourage a good a SEO / SEM strategy along with tools that allow you to convert the website visitors that you attract into solid leads (and closes). So in addition to measuring, one thing I would get going from the start is a strong content (blog, whitepapers, micro-sites) strategy for your website because it takes time and gets increasingly valuable as you build it up.

 

[Mel]

Thanks guys! That is a good idea. I'm going to do that today but I'm also concerned that any result I get will not be accurate. The biggest issue we have is that we have 4 people working part time, which means 2-3 of them come in for 4 hours a day. They do a great job on the phone and are relentless on the follow ups, they just dont have enough time to do everything properly. I'll run some quick numbers today and again at the end of next month, when I have more people on staff.

 

[JamieS]

I would second what Dave and Dan both have said. It's impossible to improve (significantly) without measuring.

I like to watch the top part of the Sales Funnel with our BDC. That is;

LEADS -> APPTS CREATED -> APPTS SHOWED

Out of all the leads we received, what % were turned into appointments? And of those appointments, how many showed?

The more you can increase at the top with appointment creation and show percentages, the more you will increase what happens at the end (sales).

If your appointment creating/show/sales percentages are low, simply throwing in more leads will prove inefficient. Yes you will increase sales numbers, but you'll be burning through valuable traffic left and right. Put the processes in place and then open up the floodgates!

To ACTUALLY answer your question on traffic sources I would also say AutoTrader and Craig's List. AutoTrader may not be the best cost per sale, but it definitely helps us move metal. Depending on your inventory size, posting on Craig's List could be quick. If the inventory is large, I would recommend a posting service. Usually about $300-$500 monthly.

 

[mcampo2501]

I think you should look more closely at each vendors ROI before making any changes. The fact of the matter is 12% is not a bad number. I would isolate each lead source and track them individually for both close rate and ROI. I would also make sure that you're not counting Phone traffic in on your close rate. Make sure that is counted separately, as those leads should actually be held to a higher standard. Once you have enough data to support the actual productivity of each of your vendors, you can make and informed and educated decision on the worth of them as lead providers. In essance, if you are getting only 10 leads from cars.com but selling 2 of them and grossing at least 1800/copy, I would say that your investment is covered. Ideally your website leads should be pulling your close rate up and third party leads should be accounting for closer to a 10% close rate. Focus on getting more people to your website. That will get your close rate up. I would also replace your part timers with full timers instead of adding more part timers. Are you gauging your employee rate based on lead volume? If so, how many new leads are you allowing your current staff to handle each month? Dealers like high close rates, but it's up to you to explain your current return and why it's not JUST about the close rate. Good Luck!

 

[The.BDC.Experts]

Also, don't forget to follow up with these leads at least 190 Days and if you have received 275 leads this month, you also have the unsold leads from last month and the month before, so maximizing the un-appointed leads with a consistent follow-up plan in place will take you to 15%. --- Most dealerships follow-up for 2-3 weeks at the max. Message or call me, I will email you our PDS BDC Internet Guide. It includes timelines, effective/motivating messages to leave and 190 days worth of follow-up. You and your team will know when to call, what to say and what email to send and why. P.S.- make sure you know how many numbers, if any, you are receiving with your inquiries, while evaluating providers. This can make or break your contact ratio. [email protected], 877-452-2753. I'm here to help.