Dealership Marketing

AutoUSA Study Finds Accuracy of Information in 3rd Party Leads Keeps Dealers Satisfied

Jeff Kershner
Posted onMar 23, 2008 at 11:54 PM
Updated onUpdated on Oct 25, 2019 at 7:13 AM

No_shit_sherlock
AutoUSA had 400 automotive dealerships surveyed AND 90% of respondents ranked "accuracy of the information" as the most important feature!?!? No Shit! The "amount of contact information" and the lead "closing ratio" were also very important. No Shit! x 2

I’m not sure we needed a study to figure this out.

Phil DuPree, president of AutoUSA said:

"Providing dealers with a volume of leads that can’t be worked because of inaccurate or incomplete information will drive down closing rates. Lead quality continues to be the overriding factor in achieving high close rates and dealer satisfaction with third party lead providers."

AND

"Dealers are looking for the right mix of lead providers that deliver the best coverage for their dealership and a high volume of quality leads," said DuPree. "They’re not afraid to switch providers if they aren’t seeing results."

Those are some impressive key factors to point, AND….I hope they didn’t pay too much to have that survey performed.

I’m not going to knock AutoUSA too hard (even though I still never got a solid answer for my duplicate lead issue). In my previous positions at past dealers, I did get my better leads from AutoUSA. Though, if you wanted to break it down even deeper, it was actually the leads from Edmunds.com that had the highest closing ratio (BUT..too often had the worse front end gross). Guess you can’t have both?

If you want, you can make the jump over to the
full press release..AutoUSA Study Finds Accuracy of Information Keeps Dealers Satisfied with Third Party Lead Providers

Jeff Kershner
Founder of DealerRefresh - 20+ Years of dealership Sales, Management, Training, Marketing and Leadership.
L
  • L
    Lau Shi
  • March 24, 2008

The only way to be sure you are not paying for duplicate leads is to audit and reconcile the monthly statement. When you see a duplicate lead you just do not pay it. The reputable lead providers do not expect you to pay for duplicate leads as long as you are able to verify.

I think most dealers will agree the most quality leads they receive and the leads with the highest conversion to sales success are from the OEM’s.

Now if we can get the OEM's to budget more of their advertising budgets to the web, add more creativity to their promotions and stream line their pricing strategy and finance specials we will all be happier.

The Internet is really where consumers learn more in-depth information so that focusing more of their efforts online will have the greater impact for sales.

Toyota and Lexus as well as a number of other OEM’s are learning this. Both have been shifting money away from cable /TV buys and production of commercials to the Internet as a way to narrowcast even further than is possible through traditional media channels. The nice thing as they are discovering ways to make the process interactive which will be a dynamic addition to the process once it is perfected.

Running a commercial on traditional media costs money every time it is run; on the web the more you run the commercial the more ROI you receive on the investment. 75 to 80 percent of luxury car shoppers use the Internet in the research phase of their shopping process and more and more have made their decision before they come in.




M
I second the "uh duh" Jeff. AutoUSA doesn't need to have studies conducted (though I applaud the focus on empirical research) to convince dealers that lead quality is an important issue.

Accurate and complete consumer data must be the lead providers priority. It should be tied into what generated the lead. Authenticity in offering something of value in exchange for said consumer data still needs to be of focus and more widely practiced.

On the flip though, there are many providers out there that will do whatever is necessary to generate a lead for sale. There quality is definitely an issue, but they are quickly identified when you have the right software in place.

All too often dealers do not have the right software. So the question is who's watching the dealers back?
M