- May 1, 2005
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So...to price or not...Well, I have to say the 2 months ago my dealer had a staffed sale and management chose to take the price of all used cars off of our website (I was able to save AT & cars). The inquiries for that week tripled.
However, I would liken this to buying Facebook Likes. Just because some deal hound from 500 miles away sent in a lead doesn't make it a sell-able customer. Add to the influx of leads the fact the BDC could not quote prices for the duration of the sale and you wind up with a TON of angry non-customers and a damaged reputation. If they were to have called in, the guys on the floor were giving out quotes on the phone-and this happened to a number of people that when the BDC did their follow up calls they were screamed at for not providing the requested information.
My opinion is that not only did my BDC have to spend a lot of time chasing non-customers and take a beating, but we lost customers that would have bought by not having prices on our site for the reasons others have noted. My bounce rate went up 40% and the closing rate fell by 65%. If the BDC would have been able to quote and it had not been a staffed sale, maybe things would have gone better.
OH..and if these numbers weren't reason enough to price your cars...give me another 2 months, we have the same sale at the end of next month at our other store.
Kelly, any update you can share with us?