Will dealers buy leads from a (small!) startup competitor to CarGurus and TrueCar?

[carwebsite]

I'm working on a project that's a more humble car grading / inventory site. I'm not in the industry, I'm just shopping for a used car now and hate the experience I've seen.

At some point I may hope to connect high-intent buyers to single dealers (i.e. only getting a phone call from the dealer they want about the exact car they want).

My best case scenario is to be a significantly smaller version of CarGurus, etc. with a more transparent scoring system, less spam, etc. I'm just enjoying the project.

So I'd love to know from any professionals--at what point would dealers be interested in talking to me? I theoretically have the means to keep the project afloat for a year or more while I (hopefully) gain some scale. I'm obviously just clueless on what it'll take, what kind of metrics and outreach I should do in Year 1, if I should just ditch this whole idea, etc.

Any advice much appreciated!

 

[DjSec]

I'm working on a project that's a more humble car grading / inventory site. I'm not in the industry, I'm just shopping for a used car now and hate the experience I've seen.

At some point I may hope to connect high-intent buyers to single dealers (i.e. only getting a phone call from the dealer they want about the exact car they want).

My best case scenario is to be a significantly smaller version of CarGurus, etc. with a more transparent scoring system, less spam, etc. I'm just enjoying the project.

So I'd love to know from any professionals--at what point would dealers be interested in talking to me? I theoretically have the means to keep the project afloat for a year or more while I (hopefully) gain some scale. I'm obviously just clueless on what it'll take, what kind of metrics and outreach I should do in Year 1, if I should just ditch this whole idea, etc.

Any advice much appreciated!

Dealers don’t care about “cool projects”, they care about selling cars for a profit.

They care about:

1. Cost per sale
2. Lead quality
3. Phone calls that show up
4. ROI vs their current vendors

When Would Dealers want to talk to you?
When you can say:

• “I generated 27 inbound calls last month.”
• “12 turned into appointments.”
• “5 cars sold.”
• “Average cost per sale: $214.”

What backend and frontend are you using?

 

[carwebsite]

Dealers don’t care about “cool projects”, they care about selling cars for a profit.

They care about:

1. Cost per sale
2. Lead quality
3. Phone calls that show up
4. ROI vs their current vendors

When Would Dealers want to talk to you?
When you can say:

• “I generated 27 inbound calls last month.”
• “12 turned into appointments.”
• “5 cars sold.”
• “Average cost per sale: $214.”

What backend and frontend are you using?

Appreciate the feedback. I didn't mean to pitch it like it'd be just a hobby if I was approaching dealers, it'd be a real business if I get to the lead generation stage.

The metrics you listed are definitely what I'm intending to track. Building on Next.js with a Supabase/PostgreSQL backend

 

[tylernobi]

@DjSec nailed it. I'll add one thing from the founder side: dealers are (rightfully) skeptical of startups because they've been burned by vendors who overpromise and underdeliver. The single best thing you can do early on is find 2-3 dealers willing to pilot for free, then let the results speak for themselves. If your numbers are real, those pilot dealers become your best salespeople.

The other thing I'd say is don't underestimate how much dealers value simplicity. If your tool requires a dealer to change their workflow, you're fighting an uphill battle. Our product requires zero work for them and we don't pay if we don't produce which is a pretty hard thing to say no to.