Your Favorite Metric

[Alex Snyder]

Aside from sales and gross, what metric do you like to track most?

 

[VVAuto1]

Perfect world

Would like VDPs minus IP address to FTP into VAuto (from DDC)

+ vauto to include vehicle saves from all 3 DDC, trader and cars

 

[Jeff Kershner]

If I'm an ISM paid on lead to sale, the answer is conversion.

If I'm a forward thinking dealer principle, I want VDP views. All. Day. Long.

More VDP views can equal more online form leads but it's also going to increase phone calls and more importantly, foot traffic.

When are we going to quit being so lead centric and focus on the experience, effortlessly leading the customer right through the showroom door?

Bonus: a vehicle with a shit load of VDP views and no action is telling you something.

Online Lead conversion alone is a "blind" metric.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Alex, reading the questions from your survey above - is this a 2 part question? Take the survey and also list your favorite overall metric, no matter the metric?

If so - one of my favorite metics is Lead to Show. We typically focus so much on leads and lead to sold. I want to know how many shows.

Before anyone takes this off topic around the metric of Lead to Show - read this first.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Alex, reading the questions from your survey above - is this a 2 part question? Take the survey and also list your favorite overall metric, no matter the metric?

I'm curious as to what people are putting their money on these days. And also asking what, of the two main things I hear about, they deem most important. So, yes, this is a 2 part question.

 

[Tallcool1]

Right now, my focus is on actually getting leads or website conversion. My overall philosophy is really along the lines of what Jeff is saying below with a really big focus on the "Bonus" comment. I have been driving lots of traffic to a website that just does not convert at all. I have a shit load of VDP views and NO action...which has told me something. My current website sucks and it is getting replaced.

When I have a website that will actually encourage a customer to ask questions and want to know more, my focus will absolutely be VDP views. I see a VDP view no different than a customer walking around on my lot. The more people that will look, the more vehicles that I will sell.

If I'm an ISM paid on lead to sale, the answer is conversion.

If I'm a forward thinking dealer principle, I want VDP views. All. Day. Long.

More VDP views can equal more online form leads but it's also going to increase phone calls and more importantly, foot traffic.

When are we going to quit being so lead centric and focus on the experience, effortlessly leading the customer right through the showroom door?

Bonuse: a vehicle with a shit load of VDP views and no action is telling you something.

Online Lead conversion alone is a "blind" metric.

 

[sryan]

My favorite metric, which may seem odd is customer engagement. How many internet customers are we actually getting a hold of? Are they even opening their emails? Are they answering the phone? Is their phone number legit? The list goes on

How many customers am I actually getting a hold of!??!!!??? I manually count all 150-200 leads every month for these metrics!

 

[Daniel J. Mondello]

Clearly leads are easier to sell but there is great value and importance in seeing multiple VDP views per session. Or even better repeat exact vin VDP views in multiple sessions. IE the customer can't get enough of the vehicle and is getting closer to a visit.

Come on everything is important. This is a hard question to answer

 

[Bill Simmons]

Of these two I have to vote for VDP's. I do believe that they turn into the "mystery conversion" as walk-ins to our dealership without filling out a form. Do you have map views and directions page views setup as a goal in Google Analytics? Whenever I see a lift in VDP views I can bet that I will also see a lift in the amount of people viewing maps and directions. Perfect science? Of course not but I do believe there is a relationship to the two sets of numbers.

 

[tomwhitejr]

I used to believe that there was a direct correlation between the number of unique visitors on your website and the number of cars sold. I now believe, more specifically, there is a direct correlation between the number of VDP's and the number of cars sold. I pay attention to lead form submissions and conversion, but lead submissions can be down (like they were in January) but over all website traffic (AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, lot traffic) was WAY UP over the previous month. So, I have a hard time tying conversions into overall sales effectiveness. I'm a VDP fanboy...