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I'm not sure what you mean by "little to back it up". I started with statistics to back it up including a study of 30,000 leads from three dealerships.   I'll add that Ford Motor reports an 18% close rates on leads generated from national TV spots (Text FOCUS to 63611) - by far the highest close rate they have ever experienced. 


The 88% prefer text figure is for adults 45 and under and comes from Potratz Partners Agency in 2011.  I don't think it can be overstated that there are too many dealerships stuck in the paradigm that they only way to sell is by getting someone on the phone - call, call, call, call, call - while the next generation of car buyers are changing  and calling increasingly has the opposite effect - you are driving away a prospect.  There are a number of other voices in this thread that agree that the old ways of call first have to be reevaluated and changed.


Capturing a mobile phone number and opting-in a prospect to text messaging doesn't preclude calling them at some point but by texting with them first, building a relationship on their terms and then asking for permission to call (if necessary) dealers are going to find a lot more success in selling to the under 45 demographic.  And to the point of the thread - capture valid phone numbers.


Jeff, while I appreciate that you acknowledge success with using text messaging and that it certainly has a role in dealer communications I was disappointed by the twice dismissive tone of your response - as if just because I come from a text messaging background nothing that I write about SMS could be valid.  As a moderator of these discussions I would think you should be encouraging industry experts to weigh in on their area of expertise, not bullying them, and very often these industry experts are the vendors (which make up ~50% of the posters here).