If anyone knows me or even after speaking with me for a few minutes about my job, they know I’m not a huge advocate of segregated “Internet Sales Departments”.  I hate it when I hear…oh, their “Internet customers”. There is no such thing as an “Internet Customer”. If you read the newspaper and respond to an ad, are you a “Newspaper customer”? Or maybe you’re a “TV commercial customer” because you saw the dealers’ latest ad on TV.

A “lead is a lead” and a customer is a customer. The process should be the same no matter where the customer comes from. It kills me when a dealer establishes an “Internet Department”. It’s like having a special department that does everything right but it’s ok to continue to allow our showroom sales people and managers to do things the wrong way.

As I said, I don’t believe in segregated internet sales departments. I tell my sales people and dealers..if you’re going to make this a profession, then you need to be where your customers are and be willing to communicate with them in the manor they desire. A new generation is rising and these old school dealers and the GM’s that are managing them need to step up to into the times or your gonna get smoked!

I was actually working on an article about my opinion on how dealers need to realize that your Internet Sales Department is/are your showroom sales people. BUT..after reading Leo Hillock’s latest article in Jan. 2006 Digital Dealer magazine, I could not have said it better myself and decided to just forward a link to a copy of this article.

Click here for Leo’s Article

Could your local competitive dealer be clicking on your ads to dwindle down your budget?

Could you be a victim of click fraud?
Is PPC advertising already doomed?

As search engine marketing (PPC) gains more and more popularity for dealers, there are many things you need to be aware of before dumping thousands into this avenue of advertising.

If it’s this easy for a competitive dealer to click away at your ads (costing you money with every click). What about the vendors that you contract for your search engine marketing? I’m not accusing any vendors of doing this but it sure does make you think.

If you’re already advertising or considering PPC ads on Google, Yahoo or any other search engine, this is a must read!

Click here to read the Article

Take a look at this. What conclusion do you come up with when you see this snap shot taken from my lead manager. This has been my biggest grip about 3rd Party Leads. Don’t get me wrong, I believe there is a place in a dealers online marketing efforts for 3rd Party Leads. However, these companies need to tighten up on whom they are buying these leads from.

Here you will see that within only a few minutes apart, I received the same customer lead from AutoWeb, AutoUSA and iMotors (I’m surprised to have AutoUSA on this list. They have been my best provider thus far for quality leads). The awful part about this customer lead, the phone number is bad, bad email and even the address is bogus. Having to send these bad leads back to the providers (sometimes on a daily basis) becomes a part time job in itself.

It’s obvious this lead was sold over 2 times. I called all the providers to see if I could find out where exactly this lead came from but no such luck getting that information. Again, I’m not directly bad mouthing any 3rd Party Lead provider. If you’re signed up with multiple Lead providers, just keep your eyes open and be sure to hold your lead providers accountable for the duplicate leads.