major decrease in email leads

[joe.pistell]

Alex,
When I see lead counts drop, but lead quality go up and sales are about the same, IMO, it's something big and simple.

Off the top of my head:

1. You changed your prices (e.g. went from MSRP to full price transparency)
2. You added photos, or, your photos are up a LOT faster.
3. Your inventory count has changed (especially the mix of models)
4. You changed web site templates
5. You cut back on advertising (or reduced the radius of the ads)

HTH
Joe

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Alex,
When I see lead counts drop, but lead quality go up and sales are about the same, IMO, it's something big and simple.

Off the top of my head:

1. You changed your prices (e.g. went from MSRP to full price transparency)
2. You added photos, or, your photos are up a LOT faster.
3. Your inventory count has changed (especially the mix of models)
4. You changed web site templates
5. You cut back on advertising (or reduced the radius of the ads)

HTH
Joe

What @JoePistell is pointing out - at any given time there could be/are countless variables that could be offsetting your performance. So be sure you're taking everything into consideration.

I recently had this conversation with a dealer. They were comparing a particular successful 3 month period to a not so successful 3 month period. The not so successful 3 month period included a more controlled lead process utilizing a BDC, while the more successful 3 month period wasn't utilizing a BDC to the same extent and the assignment of leads was more liberal, quickly finding their way into the hands of the floor sales team. SO OBVIOUSLY a controlled lead management process utilizing a BDC is suddenly nowhere near as successful as assigning leads to unqualified sales reps by way of round robin. Problem solved. End of story!

 

[Jeff Kershner]

@Jeff Kershner Last month we were able to achieve a Contact ratio of 68% and a close ratio of 19% on our internet leads, so the leads we are getting are strong leads.

And this doesn't have your wheels turning?

• Less leads allowed your staff more time and opportunity to properly follow-up with the higher quality leads, resulting in a near 70% contact ratio and near 20% close ratio?
• More personalized CTA possibly equated to less leads but of better quality?

I will change the E-price button back to "get your E-price" and keep you guys posted, I'm interested to see if it goes back up.
thanks for the input guys .

What exactly are you hoping to achieve when you go back to the "Get e-price" CTA? I believe that's a very important question here.

 

[Alex.Lemoing]

And this doesn't have your wheels turning?

• Less leads allowed your staff more time and opportunity to properly follow-up with the higher quality leads, resulting in a near 70% contact ratio and near 20% close ratio?
• More personalized CTA possibly equated to less leads but of better quality?

What exactly are you hoping to achieve when you go back to the "Get e-price" CTA? I believe that's a very important question here.

@Jeff Kershner that's a very good point. I need to get with my BDC manager and compare the contact and sold ratio over the last 6 months.

What I am hoping to achieve is to get more leads coming in from that particular website. I understand your point regarding quality vs quantity but coming from an average of 100 leads during the winter and 50 during spring/summer is a big drop for us. If we could go back to at least 80 leads and keep the same close ratio, it would be ideal for us. I am confident that our BDC can handle it and if they can't, we should look at hiring an additional agent.

On the other end, I will not going back to a "get eprice" but as @JessicaRuth suggested, I will try "check availability" It doesn't imply that we have to give the customer a lower price, but it does gives us the chance to talk to them and schedule a test drive.

 

[bringles]

A couple of thoughts,

19% closing ratio on internet leads seems low, I think 40-50% is good.

Go back to what was working, my guess is a Subaru buyer is typically a younger buyer. The younger generations are less likely to respond to "talk to dealership". They tend to prefer less Interaction with a human.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

@Jeff Kershner that's a very good point. I need to get with my BDC manager and compare the contact and sold ration over the last 6 months.

What I am hoping to achieve is to get more leads coming in from that particular website. I understand your point regarding quality vs quantity but coming from an average of 100 leads during the winter and 50 during spring/summer is a big drop for us. If we could go back to at least 80 leads and keep the same close ratio, it would be ideal for us. I am confident that our BDC can handle it and if they can't, we should look at hiring an additional agent.

On the other end, I will not going back to a "get eprice" but as @JessicaRuth suggested, I will try "check availability" It doesn't imply that we have to give the customer a lower price, but it does gives us the chance to talk to them and schedule a test drive.

From my experience, on average the "Check Availability" isn't going to perform any better. I sure thought it would 8+ years ago when I changed our main CTA to read "Check Availability". I even had some space below the button where I included a bit of supporting verbiage to help build some urgency. Having "Get Our Lowest Price" just prior to changing it to "Check Availability", this particular dealer and OEM Brand witnessed a decrease in leads. What was even more alarming was the lead performance was the same. So not only did my lead count drop but performance didn't improve. Head Scratcher, I know. So be careful @Alex.Lemoing

Incase you're wondering - my tests A/B/C typically ran for 3 months and I did my best to keep a controlled environment where my largest variable was most likely the inventory mix. DealerOn provided me with the flexibility to actually perform smaller split testing.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

A couple of thoughts,

19% closing ratio on internet leads seems low, I think 40-50% is good.

Go back to what was working, my guess is a Subaru buyer is typically a younger buyer. The younger generations are less likely to respond to "talk to dealership". They tend to prefer less Interaction with a human.

Erik, I believe you're thinking Internet Lead Show to Close where as the 19% is representing an overall Internet Lead to Sold. A 19% Internet Lead to Sold would be considered strong amongst most of the Refresh community while focusing on the very important Lead to Show rate. Especially where your set-up consists of BDC agents working the leads to appointment/show then handing off to a qualified sales professional.

 

[Alex.Lemoing]

@Jeff Kershner thank you for all the good feedback. I guess we will try a few things and see what works best. Our GM wants to go back to an MSRP + get your eprice while I think that showing some discounts + an extra eprice will work better. but that's a whole another topic lol .

@bringles If you are getting 40% to 50% closing ration on your internet leads, do you mind sharing your process? We've been focusing on our internet for the last 5 years and the best we have seen is 25%...

 

[Rick Buffkin]

@Alex.Lemoing This has been successful for us with the epricer button

http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/get-your-eprice-for-new-car-inventory.1707/page-4#post-21332

 

[ryanabbott]

We changed our "ePrice" button to a custom button that reads "Get Jane's Best Price". Jane is our Dealer Principle. The personal touch has had positive returns so far. There hasn't been a drop off in ePrice leads, I do know that. Plus it helps our sites look less cookie-cutter.