Lead Generators & Broker Services

[tbrowder]

Happy New Year Everyone,

What seems to be the concensus on the various lead generator services? Which ones work? I've test driven several with not alot of success.

How about the broker services such as Priceline and Carsdirect? I use Priceline now with mixed results. How about y'all.

I appreciate any feedback you give me.

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[mjacobs]

I have been signed up with Autoweb since the last week of December. I have gotten what look like some very good leads. Unfortunately, I have yet to deliver a single one. I am fight the battle of having talked the GM into signing up to pay for leads, and not showing any results. I realize that the average Internet shopper is weeks from an actual purchase, but, you know how "the powers that be" are when they see the bottom line.

Should I just be patient and keep working with it, or am I wasting my time? This is the first lead referal service we have signed up for, so I am not sure what to expect.

Any Ideas?

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[tbrowder]

Keep on pluggin' along. I don't have good response from lrad generators, either. I demand a 60 day trial period before I sign up with a lead service. You should, too. Your best tool is your web site. Use it to your fullest advantage.

Good luck!!!

[Melissa]

we follow up with our internet customers for 90 days, at least! Also have had success with a series of letter templetes. The templetes give the information requested by the lead and information concerning the benefits and the value of the services we provide to our customers in the dealerships. We treat the internet consumer as we would a showroom consumer. I will admit it takes a bit more creativity to do it over the internet, but the extra attention has paid off! We currently only use three services. we have 4 different franchises. I am finding quality is better then quantity! Managing leads, timely response and information, information, information are the keys to our success.

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[Dave E]

In regards to Autoweb, we worked with them last summer. My experience was somewhat disappointing, however I was fighting limited inventory last year. Our biggest problem was that we are 45 miles from a major city and most our leads were coming from that city. They would get best price and then go to one of the 3 local dealerships who would match price. My GM finally ended the program after 60 days. I felt we should have given it more time but we only got 2 sales out of 30 plus leads.

[Flatland's iMac Man]

Two Sales From 30-Plus Leads Sounds Good To Me. Out Of Nearly 50 Auto-By-Tel Leads, We Get Two Sales!

[tbrowder]

Good morning everyone,

Thought I would up-date y'all on my trials and tribulations of getting my dept. off the ground.

I've spent 3 grueling months getting my new site live with Cobalt. My former site was with Cre8.net (Dealer Sites). It's been like giving birth to a whale!

Just so you know, I run a one man show at a high volume Honda point and our internet dept. is 3 months old.I do everything myself, from inventory control to specials to delivering the cars.

Dec. I did 7 cars. Jan.-12 cars. Feb.-19 cars. My grosses averaged $1,600.00 per car, front and back.Who says you can't make gross on the internet!And my site was not fully functional yet!

My biggest hurdles were getting thr other managers to buy into the deal. We fought tooth and nail, but I think we're all on the same page now.

95% of my sales come from my web site, even though I use ( for free) several lead services, Car Club, Stoneage, Auto Trader, Priceline etc.Most are not worth the paper they're written on! I'll probably drop all but Priceline and Sam's Club.

The key is your WEB SITE!! Fast response, a clear pricing stratagy, easy to navigate site and treat the customer special.

I fully expect to sell 40-50 cars per month within 6 months if I can cross a few more hurdles. The business is certainly out there for the taking.

I'm very encouraged but you all know how the car business is. Never a dull moment. I'm like the farmer's duck. I wake up in a new world every day!

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[Pat]

Man and boy howdy! Thats what I like to hear!

Congratulations! and I wish you the absolute best in your sales!

[andone]

The key to a lead provider is the their positioning on the internet and filtration of leads. Not only on Yahoo, or excite, but check out go.com, snap.com, alta vista.com, search.com as well as other communities where the consumer is doing their research.

Some of smaller providers don't have market share or resources to provide fitration or buy positioning, and will be a waist of time.

[SDG]

My 2 cents on lead generators...(and I don't work for any of them)

1st: Free leads will be old and usually are duplicates sent to several other dealers...you cannot judge a lead service entirely on thier free leads. Having talked with many dealers around the country, it really is that lead provider's marketing presense in your market....You may have great luck in your market with one particular provider while in another market they might be horrible. I also found that during my tenure as an internet specialist sometimes the "position" switched around...based on that companies current marketing campaign...the first half of one year I had better luck with ABT customers and then the second half of the year it went to Autoweb....go figure?

A dealer must make a very interactive web site and try to give the customer all the info they need right there...reel them in like the lead providers....you will find that the customers that come to you through your web site will have a higher closing ratio than those who come to you by 3rd parties....it may very well be that they would have been your customers anyhow but they are embrassing your Internet presence.

But almost as important has having a web site, you must MARKET your web site...you must make sure your web site can be found on the search engines...Amazing how many dealers CAN'T be found even when you know the name of the state and town, makes, etc. Someone must be responsible for making sure that these search engine registrations are kept current...you can't just do it once....okay, how about having a LARGE web site address and email address on your advertising instead of just a little one? Is it on all the letterheads and business cards of EVERYONE at the dealership (service too!)...and PLEASE dealers...if you are going to offer service appointments on the net, make sure you market that too...I have seen several dealers who just can't figure out why no one uses the service...but yet...they don't market their web site...there isn't a sign in the service department telling people they have this available to them...they didn't send out letters notify customers they could do it...so you know darned well they sure as heck didn't EMAIL their databased customers letting them know they have a new option.....which brings me around to another point.....WHO'S COLLECTING THE EMAIL ADDRESSES??? Should it be just the internet sales specialist???? NO !!! How about having an interest survey for all prospects where they can give an email address, let you know what they are interested in outside of "cars" so that you can MARKET TO THEM (perhaps you may have to entice them with a coupon or something) !!..How about having the service writers ask for emails???

okay, I'm tired and you can figure out I'm kinda on a rampage right now....this stuff is NOT rocket science...it really just takes a little common sense, a little creativity and the bravery to implement it.