IS YOUR DIGITAL HOUSE IN ORDER?
Leads are the lifeblood of our industry. They’re what keeps the keyboards clicking, phone dialers busy, and help most dealerships drive more customers into their showrooms.
As I write this traveling back from the DrivingSales Executive Summit, I’m once again reminded at these industry conferences how fortunate I am as a Canadian to have learned from the dealer experiences in the U.S. The challenges in lead management that burdened our U.S. dealer clients a few years back are now precisely those that are front and centre with Canadian dealers.
As dealer and OEM marketing dollars begin to shift more from traditional to digital, including SEM, Social, Display and Retargeting, we are seeing more visitors to our websites with more form submissions and more digital leads.
We are getting smarter about the ways we reach customers, but it’s also making the sales process more complex.
Now, don’t get me wrong, this is a good problem to have. But before you go and shift more of your marketing dollars into digital, make sure you dial in your lead handling process to maximize ROI.
As I like to say, “Get your house in order before you invite your guests.”
Our company has been fortunate to work with many dealers and dealer groups who have implemented the tactics and processes required to meet the new demand.
SET UP YOUR STRUCTURE
When we initiated a training program a few years ago, the aim was to help dealers set up their “blueprint” for their lead handling process. One of the key areas of focus was the structure of the dealership, and how to set up your team to maximize success.
Though dealers liked the idea, they didn’t see it as practical. “This is great and makes logical sense but we don’t get enough leads for implementation to be practical,” they would say.
The art of digital lead management has changed dramatically over the past decade, and will continue to evolve over the coming years. It’s our role to ensure we continue to evolve along with it.
Fast forward three years, and those same dealers who have put effort and investment into their online marketing have come back and said, “We’re ready.”
Many of these dealers started out with monthly lead volumes in the 40s and are now seeing those numbers double. Our rule of thumb is once you get to 80-100 digital leads per month, you should look at a dedicated person to manage them.
Having a distributed model, where leads are dispersed to the sales team, seems to work at the lower volumes, but once you get to around 80, the Compounding Lead Factor makes it difficult for this model to be effective.
COMPOUNDING LEAD FACTOR
Anybody building a blueprint strategy needs to understand the “Compounding Lead Factor.” In a nutshell, you might only be getting 100 leads per month, but if your “non-contacted” follow up strategy is in place, your team is responding to new leads, following up on old leads and setting appointments — all in the same day.
This is not easily managed by one individual, but with a solid process in place and the support of the right technology solution, your team should be closing digital leads at 18 per cent. Without those critical processes, dealers are selling at seven to nine per cent tops and losing opportunities to their competitors.
DON’T DISCRIMINATE
As you know, digital leads come in many shapes and sizes. Your team is getting them from your website, the OEM’s website, and third party sites such as AutoTrader and Kijiji.
It’s interesting to note one of the main reasons we’ve not seen our overall digital lead count grow as quickly here as in the U.S. is because we don’t have the influx of new car leads from third party sites.
In the U.S., dealers see a high percentage of their lead counts coming from OEM third party programs that started during the dot-com boom such as Edmunds, Cars.com, and Autobytel, among others.
Alternatively, U.S. dealers buy leads from aggregators such as AutoUSA or Dealix. That’s right — aggregators. In the U.S., there are so many providers of online leads that there’s a need for aggregators.
What’s interesting is many dealers will tell you it’s a “necessary evil” to work with third party leads. But those who have a consistent lead handling process do see good results. If you handle leads consistently, regardless of the source, you’ll sell more cars.
We’ve heard rumblings for years now that new car, third-party providers will be coming north of the border. So if and when they do, remember they can be effective if you have a solid lead handling process in place.
FOCUS ON FIRST PARTY LEADS
The leads that come from your website, such as form, chat, and phone, are the most valuable and will close at the highest rate. These customers have weaved their way down the purchase path and made it into your “virtual dealership.”
Typically, they’ve had a positive customer experience on your site, selected you as one of their dealer choices and filled out a form. Surprisingly, we still see dealers who neglect to respond to these leads.
We are getting smarter about the ways we reach customers, but it’s also making the sales process more complex.
Do yourself a favour: next time you’re in your CRM, check your response rate on your website leads. If it’s not 100 per cent you need to have a talk with your Sales or Internet Manager.
Increasing the number of first party leads takes some effort — but it’s well worth it. Once your house is in order and a lead handling process is in place, look to increase unique website traffic through SEO, SEM and other forms of social advertising such as Facebook and Twitter.
With only a two to three per cent conversion of visitors to leads, you can see the importance of driving as many customers to your optimized site. It’s all a numbers game — even with digital!
DON’T FORGET MOBILE
I would be remiss if I didn’t conclude an article on digital leads with a section on mobile. It continues to be the big buzz at conferences and, with over half of searches happening on a mobile device — and growing — you can see why.
The one thing to remember is smartphone users are more likely to use click-to-call from a search or from your mobile optimized website then fill out a form.
If you’ve not seen an increase in inbound calls coming from mobile search or your mobile site, you may want to ensure they are both optimized. If you don’t get it on a report today, make sure you ask your team to see the metrics. Call tracking is more important now than ever before.
The art of digital lead management has changed dramatically over the past decade, and will continue to evolve over the coming years. It’s our role to ensure we continue to evolve along with it.
