iMotors leads and my review and experience X2!!

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

We used iMotors a long time ago in some sort of freebie trial. I think we also had something coming in from them through Isuzu - when we were selling Isuzu's. I do recall there being a high amount of bad leads, but it was too long ago to remember the factors that made them bad.

Before reading this thread I had already decided not to use their services again. Unfortunately, there are quite a few lead providers out there like this. As more pop up they will only degrade the reputation of 3rd Party Lead Providers further.....with us and our customers.

 

[Tara Gibson]

Hello,

I am a sales representative at iMotors.com and I had a couple questions for you. I notice some of you are concerned that you receive too much e-mail "junk" through our company. Basically, e-mails are sent to customers who visit our website to remind them of local dealerships in their area willing to help them out with their future car purchase. Now isn't this similair to the same e-mail they would get from you when someone visits a dealership website and receives an automatic response after they insert their information in your personal dealer website? Yes, those e-mails sent from dealerships can get annoying, yet they also remind the consumer that someone is there willing to help them with their future car purchase.

Also, I noticed Jeff saying he sold 2 cars out of 26 valid leads (about 10%), which is industry average for most dealerships, which could be classified as good! Also, he made a high gross from those 2 vehicles sold and he also received great customer service along the way.

From the looks of the article it seems like the only thing Jeff was concerned with was his time and energy spent working the leads being sent to him. I'm sure we can all agree that hard work equals great success. I have been the top sales person at reply for the past year and its because of my hard work, never giving up, persistant sales skills is what allows me to be rewarded! I suggest if you want a lead provider to work for you, that you remain consistant with the leads received, regardles if there are bad names or bad numbers (which get credited anyways) because sorting through the bad, you are sure to find a gem.

I spoke with an internet sales managers in CO recently who told me he was happy to receive a duplicate lead from another provider because it indicated the customer who he already was dealing with was interested in another car. So he called him and asked if he was interested in this other car and the customer told him he was being pushy, but that he had changed his mind and he ended up purchasing the new car he was interested in. Psychologically, being a persistant sales person will help you out in the long run.

Basically, we (lead providers) are very similiar, yet different. The main thing that can separate any company would have to be their service. If we are willing to help you out any way possible and credit you for anything that is unworkable, why wouldn't you want to try our service out.

Jeff, there is no such thing as a perfect lead provider and no we are not selling "magic" leads, if this was the case, I'm sure we would be charging at least $500 per lead if we knew for sure the lead would turn into an automatic sale, but we do have an excellent service, with excellent people, and we try our hardest to make our dealerships happy. Some people do well with our program and some people don't, but what it really boils down to is the internet process of the dealership and how each lead is being handled.

Each lead is like a bomb, if handled incorrectly, the lead will explode and go elsewhere.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Tara, to answer your questions;

I notice some of you are concerned that you receive too much e-mail junk through our company.

What myself and Mitch are referring to are all the emails that Reply Inc. send out on the consumer side. I one time got onto the Reply mailing list and I would get emails at a minimum of once a day. It took weeks to get off the mailing list. We are merely pointing out that Reply Inc. is very heavy with their email distribution.

"Also, I noticed Jeff saying he sold 2 cars out of 26 valid leads (about 10%), which is industry average for most dealerships, which could be classified as good! Also, he made a high gross from those 2 vehicles sold and he also received great customer service along the way."

Yes you are right, 10% is the average for most dealerships and making a high gross is a great thing if it happened every month. However, you are overlooking the fact that I also had to go through 25 BAD leads to get to that sale. If you add the 25 bad leads into the percentages, you're far from a 10% closing ratio.

"From the looks of the article it seems like the only thing Jeff was concerned with was his time and energy spent working the leads being sent to him."

Now your getting me a little fired up! It's obvious to me that you did not actually read my posting. My concern was all the BAD leads and the time I and my sales people were spending trying to contact people that didn't even exist. We were working each lead to the bone, but many of those leads never got past the bogus number. It's only a matter of time before ANYONE would become discouraged with the quality of the leads.

"I suggest if you want a lead provider to work for you, that you remain consistent with the leads received, regardless if there are bad names or bad numbers (which get credited anyways) because sorting through the bad, you are sure to find a gem."

I don't have time for gem mining. I pay for a service and expect some level of quality to the leads I'm paying for.

"Basically, we (lead providers) are very similar, yet different. The main thing that can separate any company would have to be their service. If we are willing to help you out any way possible and credit you for anything that is unworkable, why wouldn't you want to try our service out."

As mentioned in the original post, everyone at iMotors was very gracious and accommodating when it came time to getting credit for the bad leads. But come on, with so many bad leads, there is a deeper problem here then just capturing the occasional bad lead.

"Some people do well with our program and some people don't, but what it really boils down to is the internet process of the dealership and how each lead is being handled."

We have a process well above the average and all I'm asking for are leads that have a legit phone number or email address before it is sent to me. This was something I was not receiving from iMotors.

"Each lead is like a bomb, if handled incorrectly, the lead will explode and go elsewhere."

As will a 3rd party lead vendor if dealers deny their low quality leads. I've been doing this for a long time, I'll admit I'm not perfect but don't question my ability.

 

[Jeff Larsen (blog)]

Excuse me waiter, can you get my friend Jeff an ice water...

Well versed, and so true! I have not experienced this with iMotors but have with another vendor.

A month before arriving at a dealer group a few years ago as Internet Director, a BDC dept was put in place with a 2 day crash course on a ILM tool, with nothing but an auto reply and a few email templates to handle leads. Out of 6 BDC personel, only 2 had any internet experience.

With good intentions, the COO also signed on with a pay-per-lead service across 4 main locations relying on promises of quality leads.

As we all know, most upper management is not as knowledgeable as us in the trenches to the tricks of this trade, one of them being putting a monthly LEAD CAP on a new service such as this.

Two months later the controller is asking me about bills for $2500-$3500 per location per month and what we got back from it. Finally getting time to dig the reports out of the ILM tool (besides overseeing BDC I was also selling across 8 rooftops with 12 manufacturers), I about had a heart attack!

Every location was receiving 100-200 leads from just the one vendor, most getting only an auto response and nothing else.

Obviously not all is the vendors fault, but as I suggested when asking the vendor for a "little help" with the first two months of billing, almost $20,000...

"When selling a vehicle to a customer, I don't want to just sell them a car today, but also their next vehicle, friends and family for a lifetime. Hurray for your sales rep that got the big hit, but now you lost a customer for a lifetime. Had he eased us into your service (25 leads per account/month) and we could experience how quality your leads supposedly are, then raise the lead cap and we would all continue to benefit for years to come." Win Win.

What happened to morals, integrity, and honesty? Was the sales rep that desperate for money, ignorant, or just didn't care? I like to think if it had been myself seeing the situation, I would have made some suggestions to start slow and build up.

Better yet, on a 2nd round of trying the vendor months later (not my choice) and them promising how this is the "premier" package in which all customers are called by them to confirm before passing the lead on... Yeah, I put in three leads personally and no one called to confirm any of them and most leads were coming from over 100 miles away.

Waiter, an ice water for me please!

 

[JoE Drosen]

iMotors = "Punch the Monkey Leads"

Before becoming the Sales Director for CarSpot, I was the eCommerce Director of the Boucher Automotive Group in Wisconsin (18 dealerships). We pretty much tried every lead source... well at least once.

iMotors was the cheapest leads out there; I guess you would say we got what we paid for. These leads became to be known as "Punch the Monkey Leads"... since many of the customers that we called would tell us that they weren't in the market for a car, but they "Punched the Monkey" to get a free Xbox and were required to sign up for credit card and submit multiple leads for various products.

The big kicker was when we contacted the customers, they wanted to know when they would get their Xbox? Even after we explained how we had received their information, they would call us back looking for their "earned" goods.

If there is anything that I can say, we left iMotors and transferred more of our business (spending) to Dealix and were much happier. Dealix is more expensive, but their lead sources are better screened and the leads are filtered and cross checked. Dealix also does a follow up survey that helps track where a customer is in their buying process.

-JoE Drosen
National Sales Director, CarSpot

http://www.carsgofaster.com

 

[Mitch]

I guess my question to the iMotors Reps here would be this: if it's true that people do well with your program, where are those people? I haven't seen a positive comment yet from an iMotors client or ex-client. I also don't know any industry counterpart of mine who would promote iMotors as a vendor.

I was just pitched the iMotors program again yesterday (wouldn't take a whole lot of research on their part to know I'm the same ex-client who axed their program within 2 months and subsequently posted my displeasure on DealerRefresh)... I almost felt bad for the guy, as it seemed he was new to the company, or at least the region.

If I were iMotors, I'd be calling up some of those successful clients I supposedly have, and bribing them to surf over to DealerRefresh and leave some love. If said dealers are successful with the program, I'm sure they wouldn't be fazed by the negativity of the other comments.

 

[Seth]

We've been using iMotors for awhile, a bit over a month. We've so far had little if anything in the way of success. I will give them credit for their customer service, they've always been helpful, but the leads are pretty much all duds. The problem is most leads don't qualify for credit due to their circumstances.

I wouldn't recommended this service based solely on that It's better to use AutoTrader or cars.com as they acquire their leads from people who are legitimately looking for a car (at least sometimes) Those looking with iMotors (and any of the smaller pay per lead groups) are usually just tire-kicking. This is a problem not exclusive to iMotors, so you must be careful. Not saying they all are like this, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

I give iMotors a pass, go for the more well-known sources that cater more to people who are seriously looking for a car.

 

[esietsma]

Ok, I just couldn't help weiging in. I know I should be working right now, but I got sucked into Jeff's blog - darn you! Tara, Tara, Tara, your obvious failure to understand Jeff's email was frustrating and you are lucky I am not Jeff, because I have a blazing temper and I would have unloaded. But, in respect for Jeff's blog, I will refrain, since I personally have no experience with iMotors, but can certainly empathize. Our group has 64 dealerships in the Mid-Atlantic and we have cut almost all of our third party leads except for two providers. The frustration our internet teams have with bad leads and the time spent chasing them is a concern that stretches all the way to corporate where I sit.

The last thing we want our internet teams doing is chasing their tail, which is the very thing you callously skipped over and called "hard work." No, that is stupid work. Work smarter, not harder is what we say and we do our best to provide our teams with tools and leads to help them do just that and you can believe, iMotors will never be one of them.

Erica Sietsma
Manager of CRM Systems
Mile One Automotive

 

[Tara Gibson]

Hi Erica,

I fully understood Jeff's complaint about iMotors, but the problem with dealerships today seems to be that no one wants to work for their money. Many dealerships sign up with lead providers thinking that they will be receiving buyers from every lead sent, when in reality thats just not the case. If you want to sell a car to a lead you received from a provider then you must remain persistant with the customer. Most Internet Sales Departments know that they must develop pipelines with their leads, its not a mystery that you would of course work harder with the leads that seem more interested or more willing to buy now then later, the push back leads of course you would follow up in the coming months. I'm sure you already know this.

What I'm trying to get at is this...why do some dealerships excel with iMotors and others fail? Simply because I believe the successful one's already have a well rounded system in place and know how to handle the leads as they come through. I would be happy to mention some dealerships that have been doing business with us for over 4 years. Why would they continue to "waste money" if this wasn't a good program? Clearly they know how to work a lead into a buyer.

I guess you can call it the gift of a good sales person.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Tara, you said "why do some dealerships excel with iMotors and others fail? Simply because I believe the successful one's already have a well rounded system in place and know how to handle the leads as they come through."

In many cases you are correct. However, this was not the case with my experience. Also, many times it depends on the make of car you are selling and the region you dealer is located. Consumers have different shopping and buying habits across the US.

Reply / iMotors leads did not work for a Mercedes Dealer in the Mid Atlantic region. No matter how great the process for contacting and following up with consumers.