Finally, a response from someone in a similiar situation!
I wouldn't say that I have too many leads, just too many to really work them, work the follow up program PLUS do soup to nuts when they come in to the dealership.
The first couple of months I worked as an appointment setter. The last two I have worked customers from "soup to nuts" through the entire process. The results? I made more money because I wasn't splitting the commissions, but the department sold less cars. If I am test driving, and delivering then who is working previous customers and looking for the next deal?
Since I posted this thread I had a discussion with my GM and made a lot of progress. He feels that I should not be delivering vehicles at this stage, but always selling appointments and following up. We got ahold of a Cobalt study that really opened our eyes about continuing to follow up even 120 days after contact and soft selling the dealership through branding and newsletters to infinity.
He worked out a pay plan to me that is based off of what I make the department do and not how many cars I deliver. I don't have to wonder about what I should be doing, now I can always be doing what will have the biggest impact on the store and it shouldn't hurt my income.
To weigh in on your statement, I would have to lean toward the negative side. I don't think that most sales people can handle internet leads like lot ups. I work with a great bunch of guys, but they struggle to keep up with 10 or 15 activity work plans...they are not aggressive enough to make 60-80 e-mail and phone call attempts per day and stay on top of it all. I think it takes a certain type of person who is willing to work through all of those leads to find the needle in the haystack. Unless your dealership is signifigantly different than mine in that aspect, I wouldn't want any of my guys anywhere near the internet leads until they are in the store. It's just a different animal.
I can see my department getting to a stage where we have two of me if I make the right decisions over the next year or so.
You are exactly right on your last point. Our tracking system recognizes the difference between a walk in that was brought in by the internet and someone who submits an online lead to get all of the information and has to be sold an appointment. I only work the internet leads, not walk in traffic who happened to see the car on the internet.
