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Question- What "Leads" are included in Reports

GrantG

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Feb 17, 2012
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Grant
Greetings all- I have a question for you that has generated much debate here at my store. We all have leads that are marked Bad, Duplicate, Disputed, Invalid, etc.

For the sake of accurate lead reporting what leads do you include in your monthly report? My GM thinks that ALL leads should be accounted for including duplicates & leads with bad phone/bad emails. The GSM thinks that we should filter out all dups, customers that we cannot verify (generic voicemails and never call or emails us back for 45 days) as well as the true bad leads.

Any Ideas or Best Practice info would be helpful! Thanks!
 
What I do not count:
-invalid phone and email [no way to contact]
-duplicate lead [I count the original lead]
-current "showroom floor walk-in" who later send in a lead [don't count the lead or sale]

I do count:
-people who never respond back if the email or phone is valid.


I'm normally open to all criticism, but I don't see how anyone could argue without bias for anything different than what I wrote.
 
I do count:
-people who never respond back if the email or phone is valid.

Ok, so far I feel the same way about what NOT to quote BUT what about customers with wrong phone numbers only. Are we sure they are real leads if we do not get a response via email? Also, what do you do with leads that when you reach a customer and they tell you:

1)I did not submit my information

2)I am not in the market for a car

3)I bought a car a month ago from XYZ OTHER MAKE

These are recycled leads and we get quite a few per month from the usual 3rd party suspects. Some months these total as many as 10% of our total lead volume.
 
Ok, so far I feel the same way about what NOT to quote BUT what about customers with wrong phone numbers only. Are we sure they are real leads if we do not get a response via email?

You have to count them unless you somehow know that you're being shopped [thus invalid]. It would be too easy to use as a scapegoat if you didn't count them. Whos fault is it? Customer for never responding vs. ISM for not writing an email that warrants a response? It takes all accountability away from the person sending an email of substance that will ellicit a response from a customer.

Also, what do you do with leads that when you reach a customer and they tell you:

1)I did not submit my information
2)I am not in the market for a car
3)I bought a car a month ago from XYZ OTHER MAKE

Invalid lead. All 3 example lack interest.

A lead requires interest and opportunity. Does this person have an interest in buying a car & Do I have an opportunity to contact them.




There is one exception...
IF: Cannot pronounce the customer's first AND last name
THEN: Send one email & mark invalid :)

KIDDING!!!
 
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You have to count them unless you somehow know that you're being shopped [thus invalid]. It would be too easy to use as a scapegoat if you didn't count them. Whos fault is it? Customer for never responding vs. ISM for not writing an email that warrants a response? It takes all accountability away from the person sending an email of substance that will ellicit a response from a customer.



Invalid lead. All 3 example lack interest.

A lead requires interest and opportunity. Does this person have an interest in buying a car & Do I have an opportunity to contact them.




There is one exception...
IF: Cannot pronounce the customer's first AND last name
THEN: Send one email & mark invalid :)

KIDDING!!!


HALF of our leads have names that cannot be pronounced. :mad:
 
We were pretty close to Blake's definition, save for what we called the "Human Verification" rule.

If we could not verify that a Human Being sent the lead, we marked it invalid. So if there was NO response, no way to leave a voice mail, no one saying "Hey, my kid sent that lead," absolutely no way to say there was a human being associated with this lead, then we chucked it.

We had an aggressive follow-up program -- it was rare we had to classify a lead as non-human. At the least, we'd get a "please stop calling and emailing me" after three weeks or so :)
 
John- I like the "human verification" rule and think we might try to apply that. The underlying issue that caused me to post this question is the number of 3rd party leads that are invalid. I think all can relate to follow up for a 1,2,3 months or more without any feedback from the consumer. In a perfect world they would tell us if they bought somewhere else, if we suck, etc etc.

There is some talk of shrinking our 3rd party leads due to the small ROI that they give us. I have a co-worker who is yelling to add more leads regardless of where they come from so he can pick the low hanging fruit. My feelings are the opposite. Let's work smarter AND harder with quality leads and cultivate long term follow up processes that gain more customers in the long run. Cherry picking is fine for some but not the sustainable solution. {getting off my soapbox}

My store is not as focused on the TRUE results of our Internet Department. They just look at the total number of vehicles delivered at the end of the month regardless of profit or loss, closing rate, ROI, or any other factor that 21st Century Dealers have come to look at. {no really, I'm done with the soapbox}

Anyone else have suggestions to cure my rants?!?
 
It is good to have duplicates so you're not missing business. Your duplicate reporting should help you to identify where there is a lot of cross pollination amongst your lead providers. If you're getting a lot of the same leads from Vehix and AutoUSA then it is good to know you can cancel one or change the mix up. This might be what your GM is really looking for: a way to cut expenses or to shift the budget for better optimization.

However, for judging the effectiveness of the people actually handling the leads, I don't advocate counting every single lead. Dupes and bad contact info should be outside of that equation.
 
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Alex- I am not so sure my GM is looking to trim ad spend from non performing sources and apply it to areas that do prove most profitable. It is my suggestion to stop doing "business as usual" and truely examine why we do what we do.

The way I see it is a certain dollar amount is spent no matter what. Why not try to move it around to shake things up a bit. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the defination of insanity.

How many other people have stores that are only driven by units delivered and throw all the other information and factors out the window?