Choosing a lead provider

[BBingham]

The lead source provider model is currently a necessary evil. There are quality leads out there and they are real prospects.

However, the information surrounding these leads (unique user id, etc.) are gold to the manufacturers who are taking equity positions directly or indirectly in these companies. This huge database fits nicely in their plans to circumvent the franchises.

Look for long-term solutions that wean you away from these entities (CarSoup.com and coming soon CarCreditUnion.com). Look for companies that align their selves with the dealers, not the manufacturer (hint, the C word).

If you are using a quality technology partner for your web design, hosting, and marketing, they should have a plan to transition you to a more self-sufficient model.


------------------
Bruce Bingham
bbingham@thirdcoastmedia.com
www.thirdcoastmedia.com

[andone]

The 10 to 20 dealers I meet with weekly consistently say the same thing, their own site and the manufacturers are NOT providing quality leads. (I personally met with 2 dealerships today that said that exact thing). The biggest and the best all have the top lead providers. The ones who don't are shrinking on the vine.

The anti-dealer rhetoric thats been spewing since N.A.D.A. in January, is all false. The manufactures love the fact that they will now be able to have their dealers, move the product more efficiently.

A bad example...
You move your dealership off your big services, your competition moves in and picks up right where you leave off, and starts selling the leads you gave up. Why? So you can say "hey, I'm self sufficient" that's great, but the fact still will remain that a vast majority of the web customers are through the third party sites and somebody wants and will still sell those customers.
If it's cost effective keep on rockin'...don't be suckered from someone to give up what you've got! Those who can't do...try to teach??

[stcrim]

andone,

To a certain extent you are correct. Most dealers are more then happy to throw money at some lead provider that's willing to sell them leads they could be getting for themselves. After all, those leads are being generated in their own back yard...

I'll bet not one in a 10,000 dealers knows the exact amount of people who visited their site yesterday or what search engine or web site they came from or how long they stayed on the site or what pages they visited. I'll bet nore of them know how their site is doing in the top 15 search engines or how to get local web sites to give them free referrals.

I'll bet zero out of a hundred followed up their e-mails and quote requests with a short survey to see what the surfer did and didn't like about the web site and service.

Yet all of this and much more is available to dealers. Most don't know it's available or think that it cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Some tracking systems are free.

Any dealer today can make his or her dealership web site produce as many or more leads than any lead provider ever will. And the quality of a web site generated lead is far better than that of any lead provider.

I'm tempted to set up a free web site just to show dealers how to turn a profit with their own web site.

Steve
stcrim@prodigy.net

[russgentry]

I find it amazing that somebody thinks that over HALF of the car dealers in the US do not know how many people come to their site on a daily basis. I really think the number is high, but 1 in 10,000 is a bit overstated.

[stcrim]

russ,

If you start calling dealers and their internet depts with just these two questions you will find it very eye opening:

1. Do you have a way of knowing how many unique and return visitors came to your web site today?

2. Do you have a way of knowing what search engines sent you traffic today and what keywords were used to find you?

Some will tell you they have counters - but that does not tell you about uniques and returns and in most cases counters do not give you any figures that are close to what's real. (They are extremely easy to pad)

About the search engines If I paid $100 for every yes to the search engine question, and you paid 50 cents for each no, I can assure you I would walk away with a lot of money on that bet.

Half of the problem is - most web developers don't want their dealer clients to know how poorly the site is doing and the other half of the problem is dealers don't know what information is available to them...

This really shouldn't be about who's right or wrong, but about how dealers and their internet departments can do well with the task at hand. With that said, if the numbers seem high, I apologize!

Steve
stcrim@prodigy.net

[This message has been edited by stcrim (edited 08-14-2000).]

[russgentry]

I agree that this is to help dealers. But using numbers that are guesses at best is of no help to dealers who are already struggling to overcome this way of doing business.

In our 20 group, I know of 13 dealers who use webtrends or a similar product. I believe there are 20,000 or so franchise dealers in the US?? So 1 in 10,000 would be basically 2 dealers in the US.

Nothing harsh, just the dot.com world has enough battles to win without auto dealers overstating a problem..... that's all.

[andone]

Unique visitors! WHO CARES!!!!! Thats like people window shopping when your dealerships is closed.

The few dealers that do know their visitor count, also know the number of qualified purchase request for vehicles is pathetic, next to NON-EXISTENT!

You need to be able to sell a cars and also make money, and a steady diet of web site only leads will not get the job done..you look at the big car groups moving a lot of vehicles AND making great money have the big lead providers!

THAT'S WHAT THIS WHOLE STRING BOILS DOWN TOO!

Look, if you continue to try and list your dealership at the top of any portal search listing, it's not gonna help much because your competitor can use the same metetags you use. In other words "Everybody can be listed with you". How does the customer then differentiate...they don't.

The dealerships will never be able to spend the millions monthly the big lead providers spend to have auto channel content integration. Heck, even GM is now going to try there hand at it...that tells you right there the lead providers info and positioning is paramount! The buying public likes using the independent third party providers as a media channel to handle their request.

Once again having a top notch website is important, but it will not be the only tool, in the e-business toolbox, for dealers. You need to have top notch processes in handling these requests, that's not a lead providers fault that a dealer doesn't reply timely to these customers.
NEXT!!!

[fsmith]

I agree that lead providers are what the public sees as the anti-dealer and therefore may be able to get a great deal by using them. There are even quite a few dealers that will agree. They have a tendency to go after profit centers of the dealer (F&I) and not lower the front end, but also the back end.

The answer may ne the local site that generates high traffic by offering more. They can offer tile and banner advertising as well as third party leads. They need to promote the dealers business through advertising and total inventory with ample links bakc to the dealer's site.

Not to plug-but AutoSuperstore.com plays to that forum. They are in affiliation with local news and information and generate extremely large traffic. While not all are car buyers, most do drive. They do not go after profit centers and promote the dealer throughout the site not just in Automotive. Take a peek and let me know. You can access through AutoSuperstore.com or as an example www.al.com fro Alabama- www.cleveland.com for Cleveland- www.nj.com for New Jersey. There are many more.

[cyberjedi]

I want to say something to the ISM's and lead providers.
I am a consultant that makes decisions everyday about my clients involvement with lead providers.
My goal has always been to remove the lead providers and see where the action can come from if we make site changes, advertising programs, etc. Everyhthing that the authors of previous replys say they are doing.
Well much to everyones surprise. Lead providers are not dead, like consultants they have a place.
To begin with not all Internet Sales Departments have the flexability the respondants have claimed to have, a lot of them are sharing their computer with the parts and service people.
Okay we can blame the lead provider but there would be no leads with out them to a lot of dealers.
Congradulations to those of you that are moving metal (30 vehicles per month per person in your department)
Those of you that are selling more than 30 cars a month without lead providers - I have job openings
TO THE LEAD PROVIDERS - Please clean it up. Qualify your leads better, improve your marketing, in fact update your sites. This isn't directed to CarSmart, but all lead providers.

[swindler]

Thumbs up to each and every one of you for the great comments, insight, and strategies that you have acquired. You are all right. The lead providers have a place in this ball game for now and who knows, they may still be in the game for years. What I do know, is that it is up to each dealer to change their way of thinking about the Internet and the Internet customer.

I have been running the Internet department for a multi-franchise dealership in Maine for 4+ years now. We did like everyone else did to get our name out there. We paid for leads from different lead providers and quite frankly, wasted a lot of money. Then a light went on upstairs. We do radio, TV and newspaper ads... let's let everyone know that we are a dot.com dealership. We used to be known as Rowe Auburn, but are are now known throughout our market area as roweauburn.com. Did it cost a lot of money? No.

In most cases you won't find us on the major search engines. We have effectively branded our URL address in every for of print, audio and video in our market place. We no longer use lead providers other than our two local newspapers and CarCast. Any one of you can do the same.

Yes, it's true. The lead providers will generate more leads for you. But at what cost and benefit to you and your dealership?

As far as responses go, you must be extremely prompt. Think of it this way. You walk up to a vending machine, look over the selections, place your money in the slot and press the corresponding buttons for the item you wish to purchase. This is the same as the customer shopping your dealership over the Internet. He/She browses your sight, finds a vehicle of interest and completes an Internet request form. Just like you pushing buttons on the vending machine, you expect a response. If the item you selected doesn't drop, what goes through your mind? The same happens to the Internet shopper.

Our sister dealership is 40 miles southeast of us in the hub of the Portland, Maine market. They sell and deliver 3 to 5 vehicles per month off the Internet. Why? No.1 Poor response time. No.2 Lack of follow-up. No. 3 Wrong attitude.

We sell over 30 vehicles per month and are currently tracking over 400 Internet shoppers that are looking to purchase within a month to 6 months from now. Remember this:

You're in the driver's seat of an on-line dealership that is open 24/7. Respond quickly, accurately, and smile. You'll be a winner.