We have used this strategy at a handful of dealers and created some pretty interesting data around it. Right wrong or indifferent, leads are a measure of success for agencies, websites, etc. and this is a way to manipulate that metric.
First, while I don't personally like this tactic, and I don't like the UX, I fully believe that you have to test everything, and then retest it. What we like or don't like is irrelevant.
That said, here is some sample data:
| Average Unique New Car Email Leads per Month | Average Unique Used Car Email Leads per Month |
| Before Price Lock | 150 | 250 |
| After Price Lock | 600 | 800 |
| Net Lead Increase* | 360 | 480 |
*Of the leads received after locking the prices, approximately 60% included legit contact data.
Now for the important information...None of the following KPIs were positively affected by the increases in leads: Appointments, Ups or Sales. In some cases these actually suffered.
What did we learn from this?
While creating a lead wall does increase one KPI, it does not increase the bottom line, may actually hurt sales by pissing people off and tie up your resources chasing people who have no intention of engaging, they just wanted to see a price. This tactic only manipulates a stand alone metric, it will not change the number of people in the market to buy a car. It's math.
Here is what we are currently testing with a number of our dealers:
Show a price, but use a strike through and use a "Get Today's Price" type CTA. The key is the strike through, and will increase leads by 100% - 200%. The most important part, however, is the email response from the dealership. It has to clearly explain how the dealership adjusts prices daily and it has to either show a better price based on "today's market value" and/or similar vehicles good, better, best style. Our hypothesis is that this strategy provides the best balance in terms of what the dealership wants, what the customer wants and providing a quality user/buyer experience. While the email content may seem like a basic thing, it's often the break point in the process.
Hope this is helpful!
