by andone » Wed May 17, 2000 11:55 pm
Clearly the fact remains, that no one product is the entire answer for any dealerships e-business.
It is clear,however, that if you use a smaller lead provider, that does not have strong name branding, or portal positioning, as some of the previous mentioned providers, that you are indeed correct in saying"that they are not worth the paper they are written on." Another point to remember is that used cars only makes up 8% of the vehicles sold on the internet....not a great return!
Also published is a recent J.D. Power report"the manufacturer sites have been relegated to providing product information, and the independent third-party sites have dominated the purchase related internet functions. The report points out that online referral services provide the dealerships much MORE traffic.
J.D. Power also found a direct correlation between online sales volume and the amount of internet training dealership sales personnel receive. This tells you that you want to have good processes and procedures in place.
Your dealerships web site is only going to get a minimal percentage of the online buying public, as compared to the major lead providers. My question is; why not use the bigger lead generators...if you track leads, closing percentages, grosses, and compare what you spend, versus what your dealership receives in units sold and money made, you'll find, with the above mentioned training , that you will receive a genorous return when used in addition with a good, fuctional website.