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Shoppers don't go car shopping to fill out a lead. One can argue, a lead submission is a not a positive shopping outcome.
Shoppers sometimes fill out leads because they don't see something on the website (in the comments they'll write: "I like one just like this, but not in white")
Often, shoppers have no intention to getting into a discussion (it doesn't improve their negotiating position)
Also, consider shoppers buy cars at different speeds:
Things that can make a shopper vanish:
40% of shoppers buy in under 14 days
The lead source: The dealer site is often the last step in the journey
Our failure as an industry to adequately address what should be such an easy problem - ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION - is (at least for me) the biggest downfall of internet departments across the country
Well... I think that not answering the damn question would be the problem for any business. Somehow in the car biz we got used to think that the round around is OK.
I remember being amazed by a newbie to the car industry -- he had been in sales all his life -- 30+ years -- but had never sold cars. Day 1 the manager started feeding him some inter-nutters.
His engagement rate was damn-near 100%. He won an August sales contest in month 3 (against 60+ other salespeople). His secret? He simply, naturally answered their friggin questions! No BS templates -- no "we'd like to learn more about your...." or "we're happy to set-up a test drive, would XX or YY work better for you?" Just picked-up the phone and spoke to the customers like he was speaking to his neighbor.
Being trained in APB Selling, it was a lesson I never forgot: in the new paradigm, I needed to "unlearn" what I had been taught. Today, it's not lost on me at that much of the "training" many Salespeople and ISM's receive actually teaches them how to alienate the Internet Lead/Customer.
Automotive dealers debate whether long-term follow-up of unresponsive "ghost" leads is worth the effort, with discussion focused on engagement rates, follow-up strategy costs, and team morale impact.
A key insight emerges that continued contact with non-responsive leads can actually harm overall email deliverability, making it strategically better to stop pursuing certain ghost leads rather than exhaust resources on them.
Data from industry professionals suggests engagement rates vary dramatically (from teens to 90%) depending on lead source type (first-party, second-party, or third-party), indicating that the ROI of long-term follow-up is highly dependent on where leads originate.
Automotive dealers debate whether long-term follow-up of unresponsive "ghost" leads is worth the effort, with discussion focused on engagement rates, follow-up strategy costs, and team morale impact. A key insight emerges that continued contact with non-responsive leads can actually harm overall email deliverability, making it strategically better to stop pursuing certain ghost leads rather than exhaust resources on them. Data from industry professionals suggests engagement rates vary dramatically (from teens to 90%) depending on lead source type (first-party, second-party, or third-party), indicating that the ROI of long-term follow-up is highly dependent on where leads originate.
