Is Focusing On Leads Hiding A Bigger Opportunity For Auto Dealers?

Monthly marketing meetings are filled with conversations focused on campaign "conversions" and the net leads which the store sees in their CRM. While this strategy has worked well for many years, it has become clear that dealers have a bigger opportunity to sell more vehicles and service more cars if they reframe how they look at their websites.

When dealers ask for more leads, they are really asking for more opportunities to sell or service a vehicle.

When leads are "down," it is very common for dealers to spend more money on marketing. Some may even throw a "Hail Mary" pass into the end zone by hosting an event sale or sending out 40,000 conquest emails with sketchy matchback reports.

Instead of following what has been done in the past, let's consider less common options to increase sales.

Looking At Your Website

When we launch a new Dealer eProcess Everest website, it is fast, efficient, and converts active shoppers to leads better than anyone on the market. This is due to our effective design and digital IDs which are assigned to every visitor. Personalization is powered by our identity resolution technology.

Dealers may compare website load times across various website platforms, because websites which load faster and are more responsive to device types can generate more leads.

However, the website testing data often misses a critical fact.

Dealers choose to add third-party tools to their websites without testing the impact on site load speed, net conversion rates, or how many consumers abandon their shopping processes. There are some software tools on the market that border on "breaking" the shopping viability of dealer websites. It is hard to educate dealers that a third-party tool can negatively impact a website's shop-ability.

By focusing on net leads, dealers miss the opportunity to sell more cars because the tools they choose hurt overall performance.

If a dealership website is nothing more that a series of forms and pop-ups, is there any surprise to see more and more consumers moving away from that dealership experience and find a automotive retailer who is willing to engage and have a real-time conversation?

Reframing Website Conversion Rates

Dealers need to work with their technology partners to generate better outcomes for those marketing dollars designated to drive consumers to their websites. Here are two examples of what can be possible, if dealers look at the data behind their website decisions.

Trade Tools - The success of website trade valuation platforms is not just a function of design. Conversion rates are impacted by timing; when is the request for consumer contact information (PII) inserted into the workflow? Conversion rates are also impacted by required data fields in forms. Trade tools which require both an email and a phone number in a trade process will lower a dealer's leads by 30-50% versus accepting just an email address.

If your trade tool is frustrating consumers, is it the fault of your marketing campaigns or core website?

Dealers should be measuring where consumers abandon shopping tools and make adjustments so they can have more conversations with active car shoppers. This is not the standard process, however. New tools get added to a website, and everyone waits 30-90 days to see how leads are impacted.

We can do better than hoping and praying that changes are successful.

Digital Retailing Tools - When a CTA button invites consumers to "Calculate Your Payment" on a Vehicle Detail Page (VDP), the consumer is most likely expecting to be able to see their payment based on how much money they plan to put down and how they plan to purchase: cash, lease, or finance.

Once again, conversion rates are impacted by timing; when is the request for consumer contact information (PII) inserted into the workflow? Many digital retailing tools, configured by the dealer, ask for all PII upfront before the consumer inputs any payment data. Since there is no exchange of value, over 50% of the consumer leave the digital retailing process, or they input fake data.

Dealers get mad at consumers for entering fake data so they make it even harder!

Instead of realizing that consumers will provide contact data (leads) once value is exchanged, dealers have resorted to forcing consumers to respond to a real-time message to validate their phone number or email. This extra step reduces the number of leads which a dealer sees in their CRM.

Do you see a need to be focusing on the sales process instead of net leads?

Dealers who focus on lead counts (and not abandon rates) may be losing sight of serving consumers to build an exchange of value. This is even more important for existing dealership customers. With our digital ID technology built into Everest, we can know when existing customers are back on the dealer's website.

Dealers can start to treat their existing customers with more respect and avoid forcing them down a "new customer" lead funnel.

Automotive Retailing Should Be Focused on Opportunities

When existing customers are on a dealer's website and they abandon a trade tool, a payment calculator, or a service scheduling process, the dealer should be notified that they have an opportunity to serve someone they already know.

When dealers change the timing of PPI requests in an online sales process, they will increase their sales opportunities and create a better experience for consumers.

When dealers test the tools on their websites and eliminate the "dogs" that are dragging down performance, they will generate more sales opportunities.

When dealers leverage digital IDs on their website, they can personalize website merchandising to increase engagement which will lead to greater sales opportunities.

Does Your Website Need a TuneUp?

Instead of counting NET LEADS, I suggest you reframe the question and work with my team at Dealer eProcess to create the most engaging website which will generate more sales and service opportunities. This results in more profits and higher turn rates.

I encourage you to request a demo of our new Everest platform and see how we can partner together to create an integrated retailing platform that is aligned with your business objectives.