Great topic, and went the way I expected. ABout 4-years ago, under a new Sales Manager, he wanted to try and take pricing off of the website just to run about a 3-month test.....we still had all of the vehicles tagged on the lot. I have always been a price on the web guy, but was shocked by the increase of contacts to our dealership......on the tracking, about a 33% increase in contacts. A small percentage would ask why there was no pricing, and I would let them know stright up because it would give us the opportunity to talk with the customer, and be able to offer other vehicles that may work for them as well, or maybe something not even listed that would be traded in in the coming days......most understood...made sense to them. I let them know this was not done to play with the numbers like old shool car sales, as all of our vehicles are tagged on the lot, and we give you that same price on your contact. I am sure as listed in another post, that many stop in, see no pricing, and just move on. On the flip side...how many stop in on the web, look at the vehicles, get all of the information they are looking for, and move on....never contacting the dealer because frankly, they do not have to...they have received all of the info. We had customers contact us, because they would see a nice car, and just had to know the price....so made the call....thinking they felt like they might be missing a deal if they do not call. So now as a dealer, you get scared, and price below your competitor dealers, because you think price is the driving point of the sale, so you keep trying to price lower then dealer B for an advantage, and the gross is slipping away before you even get an opportunity. Easier to qualify your price on a contact then to hope it qualifys to the customer on their view. After this 3-month test, we ran the internet program this way for about 3-years I believe, and our contact and selling numbers both increased.........I would have told anyone they were crazy if they suggested it ahead of time....kind of did in a way 
We have since hired a new Sales Manger 7-8 months ago, and repriced the inventory so it would show on line, and our contacts and closing ratios have gone down on a steady pace from the internet....really hard to fathom...but it has happened to the point we have to adjust our internet process, as what was working before is not cutting it right now, so need to get this thing working with pricing the vehicles on the web....I know others are successful, we just have to adjust our process.
I know my post is against all others on here, and in fact telling the new Sales Manager of the findings of having pricing off the web, he just looked at us with crazy eyes LOL. I know pricing off of the web is seen as a bad thing, but dang........it worked well during that stretch.....it was just different then what the 'group' was doing.....we kind of stepped back into an old box, then jumping out of the box LOL
