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Test Leads

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#11
BillKVMotorCo said:
I wonder how many dealers fainted at the words "turn off lead forms?" :rofl: But I would agree. If you're handling them that bad it's hurting more than helping. Just making you look bad.

I also believe that the bigger city dealers just don't care. They can scrap a whole lot of leads and still be just fine. Like I asked my people the other day: How many people just moved into Kirksville today? Maybe one. How many people moved into Kansas City today? Probably a lot.
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We do Mystery Shops all the time for current clients and prospective ones. Never ceases to amaze me just how poor or just completely lacking the follow up can be sometimes, including from some of the biggest dealers in the country. Although dysfunctional communication and broken processes are how we built our business for the last 8 years.

If a question is asked, the only question most ask is "When can you come in?". They don't ask anything to get engagement.

If you're not using some form of video in your response, you should be. It can definitely make your vehicle and your dealership stand out.

As for lead forms, my three cents is that your website shouldn't have any form fills. A good DR tool and chat assisted conversation buttons can help advance a conversation with a prosepctive customer. Filling out a form (if they do it) stops the conversation until we can hound them enough to get ahold of them (if we even go that far).

Happy to chat more offline if you'd like Bill. Good thread
 
#12
THEINTERNETCOACH said:
We do Mystery Shops all the time for current clients and prospective ones. Never ceases to amaze me just how poor or just completely lacking the follow up can be sometimes, including from some of the biggest dealers in the country. Although dysfunctional communication and broken processes are how we built our business for the last 8 years.

If a question is asked, the only question most ask is "When can you come in?". They don't ask anything to get engagement.

If you're not using some form of video in your response, you should be. It can definitely make your vehicle and your dealership stand out.

As for lead forms, my three cents is that your website shouldn't have any form fills. A good DR tool and chat assisted conversation buttons can help advance a conversation with a prosepctive customer. Filling out a form (if they do it) stops the conversation until we can hound them enough to get ahold of them (if we even go that far).

Happy to chat more offline if you'd like Bill. Good thread
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They don't want to come in or they wouldn't have contacted you from home, dummies. We always talk here about the first sale you have to make. The answer for internet leads is "get engagement." Get it and keep it for as long as possible.

I half agree on the lead forms. We have a CTA that goes directly to our chat tool, but we also have a text and email option so they can choose their preferred method of contact.
 
#14
Absolutely - first you sell engagement, then you sell the appointment, then you sell the car. We don't greet a new walk-in customer with "Welcome to XYZ Motors, my name is Scott. Would you like to go on a test drive?" Why do we still treat our Internet leads that way?

I just did a Mystery Shop for a large BMW store about an hour ago that had a form fill to get our E-Price now. Didn't get anything but a website company Confirm Availability Form fill. No price given now, and nothing in their initial email mentioning the Price promised.
 
#15
DrewAment said:
Back when I did software dev - this was the same.

Funny that my uncle worked at NASA, used to tell us stories all the time..... and he delt with the same thing - but probably from 1965. After retiring, they had to bring him back as a consultant just to be able to explain all the stuff to the new guys.
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I have personally built some pretty suspect stuff over the years that I know people must still be finding years later. Built for now was probably the goal, it was never meant to last for a decade.
 
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#16
DrewAment said:
Back when I did software dev - this was the same.

Funny that my uncle worked at NASA, used to tell us stories all the time..... and he delt with the same thing - but probably from 1965. After retiring, they had to bring him back as a consultant just to be able to explain all the stuff to the new guys.
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I think this happens when you train people to do things without teaching them the "why to the what."
 
#17
THEINTERNETCOACH said:
Absolutely - first you sell engagement, then you sell the appointment, then you sell the car. We don't greet a new walk-in customer with "Welcome to XYZ Motors, my name is Scott. Would you like to go on a test drive?" Why do we still treat our Internet leads that way?

I just did a Mystery Shop for a large BMW store about an hour ago that had a form fill to get our E-Price now. Didn't get anything but a website company Confirm Availability Form fill. No price given now, and nothing in their initial email mentioning the Price promised.
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Ouch. And we're still doing "Get E-Price," huh?

Side topic. One thing I'm stealing from a dealer is that when submitting the lead form, the lead submit page had links to their trade tool and payment calculators. I liked that.
 
#18
BillKVMotorCo said:
Ouch. And we're still doing "Get E-Price," huh?

Side topic. One thing I'm stealing from a dealer is that when submitting the lead form, the lead submit page had links to their trade tool and payment calculators. I liked that.
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What's funny about this whole thread is that people mystery shop these bigger stores to steal their best practices, which end up being 10 years old with broken links and completed outdated communication standards.
 
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#19
The hard part is we're still promoting our "Best performing" salespeople to become managers with very little management training. They go onto promote their personal methodologies to selling, which doesn't work for all salespeople. Additionally we give them little backup (if any!) to learn how to manage correctly... thus, the high salesperson turnover, and the low-quality salesperson who isn't taught to read the lead, will constantly fail to use the preferred method to contact or answer their question knowledgeably.

I don't care if it's not 2005, the problems from 2005 still persist even if the technology has changed.
 
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