Auto Leads

Written by Brad Dawson
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Greetings and welcome to another installment of my marketing blogs. We’ve seen a large increase in the amount of requests for auto leads lately, so I wanted to switch gears from my other blogs and start a new serious of blogs about the different types of auto leads that are out there and their use for different types of deals. The industry is showing signs of health and the auto credit markets are loosening up, which is very good news for everyone.

Successful dealerships are marketing machines that just happen to sell cars much the same say that Coke is a marketing machine that just happens to sell soda. The majorities of the dealerships I have talked to over the years are very savvy with their marketing and understand the marketing and sales process as well or better than just about any other business class I work with.  When we are talking about auto leads I spend a lot time talking about the financing side, considering the financing is as important as the cars being sold.  Dealerships are a very good example of how a credit and secondary credit market should work.  I always try to include the finance manager in our discussions when working out their marketing.  If we are going to increase the amount of cars sold we need to make sure the deals fit the buckets for whoever will be financing the deal or picking up the paper after the fact.

I’ve done enough deals for auto leads that I have a good understanding of the choke points that are involved with the dealership’s marketing decisions.  Usually one of the floor guys starts doing some research for auto leads and finds something they think can help them.  The floor guy passes it on to the marketing department, and the entire discovery process starts over. Once the marketing department gives it the OK, it’s passed off to the GM for approval at which point the entire process begins again with the GM.  I’m not saying this to be cynical; I’ve just done it enough times to know that deals with dealerships typically follow this course.   If you work for a dealership and are reading this there’s a good chance you’re grinning a bit because you’ve experienced this.  

If you work for a dealership or you are the floor guy trying to figure how to get more people on the lot, I want you to understand that I’ve put some time in and understand the industry.  There is nothing like the auto business, this is true at every level and especially true at the dealer level.  If you answer the phone for a dealership you get at least 5 or 6 calls a day asking for the GM’s desk.  The amount of solicitations to dealers for all sorts of worthless marketing has made the industry a bit rough for those of us that have legitimate products, but the other side of that is dealerships don’t ever leave when they have something that works.  When I talk with dealers I am usually dealing with master salespeople who can sniff out the good from the bad pretty quickly. 

Now that I have all that out of way let’s talk about the actual auto leads. The field of auto leads that are out there is so wide open that I’m going to break the auto blogs into sections.  The type of auto leads we are going focus on here is the trigger.  If you are a dealer and reading this you already understand what a trigger is so I’m not going to spend a lot time going over the trigger.  Our prices for them are right and our compliance is easy, it’s what happens after the trigger that makes the difference. 

When the credit inquiry triggers the auto lead we will of course deliver the ones with a phone number for your guys to call. If you’ve had any experience with them you know the contact rates will vary, and unless you‘re in a very dense area the amount of phone data is limited. The magic happens when we star t mailing them.  Every record is appended through a database to find what they are driving at the moment and that is included in the mail piece. Personalizing a mail piece is a very effective tool to use, and it will build instant trust.  The record will be mailed first class on a quality piece branded for the dealership with a PURL which is also branded for the dealership. The PURL will allow for the capture of information for people who are not comfortable calling and would like to find more about you online.  The depth of the website can vary. We can have something as sophisticated as a full credit app or simply a summary of the financing programs available.  Once the capture is completed, they will be directed back to the dealership’s inventory search page.  We also have a live inbound center to capture the calls for the ones that do call, again branded for the dealership to take the credit app over the phone and pull credit.  The results of all this is a fully qualified pre-approved auto lead that wants to buy car.  

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We have had stunning success with this program. As I say in all my other bogs I’m not going to reveal everything here. I want my paying customers to have the advantage.  Hopefully you’ve read enough here to know that I understand the industry and some of the issues and challenge that you face daily in your business. The bottom line is we can put qualified pre-approved buyers in contact with you. Give me a call and let’s see how we can make it work for you. Brad Dawson Senior Consultant brad@blackbookdata.com Cell 858 692 3388 Desk 888 818 3282 x236