Dealership Marketing

Are you being Resold to?

Jeff Kershner
Posted onJan 11, 2006 at 5:13 PM
Updated onUpdated on Oct 25, 2019 at 7:13 AM

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.

Dup_lead   

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.

Jeff Kershner
Founder of DealerRefresh - 20+ Years of dealership Sales, Management, Training, Marketing and Leadership.
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    Eric
  • January 24, 2006
Yikes...that's a nasty image right there.
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Good Day Jeff Kershner;

Asking a question is always a means to generating the lead into another. You may know, or may not know already that AutoUSA is a division of the largest retailer of automobiles in the U.S., AutoNation. Being that the leads generated at AutoUSA are facilitated by AutoNation staffers, I have wondered for sometime if there were any really good leads in their packages. I am glad to know they are among the best of your 3rd party lead providers, Mr. Kershner, and I would like to further the discussion. Are there others of your subscribers who have shared your overall experience with the AutoUSA brand?
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    Nick Covanes
  • September 6, 2006
Hi Jeff,

I just started working with AutoUSA and I am very pleased with my decision to join the team. I am glad that you have been pleased with the services so far. This is my first week on the job and I am overwhelmed by the levels of support this company has. I believe this company is really out to provide the best customer service there is in this market.

The way I came about working for the company and choosing to invest my time and livelihood in them came after very careful consideration. One of my dear friends and fraternity brothers is also the Internet manager for a local dealership here. When he told me about how well he has been treated by the company and his methods to maximize the use of the leads generated by AutoUSA, his conclusion was that working for the company should be a "no-brainer." In addition, another very important person in the life of my family works for AutoUSA and has been very pleased with the corporate culture and the strides that AutoUSA takes to make sure that its people are taken care of. Furthermore, I have done some really neat research on my own have discovered some pretty awesome facts about the company from Phil Dupree, VP of eCommerce for AutoUSA in an article at AutomotiveDigest.com ( http://www.automotivedigest.com/FollowTheLeaders/Dupree_Phil_AutoUSA.asp ). Check it out.

Jeff, I am still learning the in's and out's of things here, and so I cannot offer any explanation for the discrepancy that you astutely pointed out, other than to say I am sure it is the exception and not the rule.

Hope things go well with you and your use of the services.

At Your Service,

Nick Covanes
AutoUSA Newbie
;0)

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    Chris K
  • November 2, 2007
We use AutoUSA, and other 3rd party LP's, but I tried to cancel them (AutoUSA), but my GM said just have them cap leads at 50 per month. I am not impressed. If their 11% so called closing ratio is the best in the industry, why even use anyone else, and proves how our thinking for getting leads online is changing. Read on! That is still $1000+ a month we can use towards our "AdWords", yes, AD WORDS and killer landing page program we've implemented. We appear in the top 3 on the right of a google search. People SEE OUR URL , people see our toll-free#, they see our name, over and over again, then once they click on the ad word link, we pay .50 cents and they get sent to a killer landing page that encourages them to send OUR DEALERSHIP the tip that , hey I'd like a quote. In addition to the free exposure on the searches, the $1000 I have to pay now to get AutoUSA leads, could be an extra 2,000 clicks into my landing page/form - which I might ad, includes my toll free number. Even at the worst possible scenario, I can create more opportunities for the money than a lead provider with a "purported"11% closing ratio. Hey, I get AutoUSA leads... they're not that great. I think I know where the future is, and AutoNation and AutoUSA are not it.
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