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Permalink Reply by Dennis M. Sims on May 12, 2011 at 5:16pm

How many should become appointments?   60 

How many set appointments should show?  40

How many shown appoinments should become a delivery?  25 - 30

What positive impact would a manager confirming the appointment have?  None - That's why these people are internet leads.  They want as little contact with as few a number of people as possible.  The person setting the appointment should confirm the appointment. 

 

Chris, I would be anxious to hear the consences of this survey per se when it's done.

Denny

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Permalink Reply by Andy Patton on May 13, 2011 at 2:12pm

Chris, I guess this is a bit awkward because I work for you but in my overall 7 years of implementing and running Internet departments I think the numbers the above people are are giving you are pretty accurate.....demographics play a very big role. The 50/50/50 rule is always a good rule of thumb...if you have 200 leads you should be able to generate 100 appointments, of those maybe 50 will show and of the ones that actually show you should be able be to close somewhere in the neighborhood of 25. That equates to somewhere in the range of 12-13% closing ratio. My goal has always been in the 15-16% range( im talking about Internet leads only...not phone ups....thats a whole different scenario with what I think is a much higher rate.) One of the things I saw in the posts above really struck me as very true.....you need warriors not worriors!!! Your people should be able to be agressive on the phone...proactive...not reacative. One of the things that have changed over the years is the BDC concept. Originally, back in thr 90's the Internet was the Internet. The follow up was done by the salespeople...the 20 car people did it, the 10 car guys didnt. Thats kind of what lead to a BDC department who did both....I had them split....people who followed up on sold and unsold leads and the best were set to do leads and answer the phones. We were related to somewhere in the 30-40% of the total store business...somewhere around 100 cars a month. I think that two things are key....one.....give your director the power to dictate deals in cases where you cant get any other response.You need to have a very strong director with salemanager experience if your going this route but if the rep has to take time to get numbers from a manager you lose credibility.....customers want information...thats why they are on the internet in the first place. 2nd.....the rep that has the rapport with the customer should be the one to great them.....done correctly, they can turn them over to a salesman with very little lose of credibility. The confirmation of appointmnets should be done by the Internet Director. That person should also be making sure that the correct follow up is being done by the people that work for them. Autopilot is nice but if there is no accountability (notes!!!) then its useless. If the reps know the director is doing random follow up they will do there job better. Accountability is the name of this game which goes back to the warrior theme.....they dont need to be told...they just do it.

One other thing I dont see mentioned but is always a given, is response time!!!  10-15 minute live response during business hours should be the max! You want to try and get the person while they are still on the computer! That creates the "WOW" factor that sets you apart from the 2-3 hour later people. I dont mean auto responders here....I mean live phone/email responses. I think in the day of the smartphone autoresponders are ancient.....unless its a 3am lead or something of that nature.

Obviously, me and everyone above can go on an on with things to say about all of this but I have to stop somewhwere.

 

This is just a little of my 2 cents worth.......I hope it helps you in what ever direction you decide to go

 

Andy Patton

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Permalink Reply by Ben Misra on May 14, 2011 at 11:19am

 

Chris, Lets first qualify what leads your talking about.

 

Purchased Internet Leads - (not from your dealers websites) Average price $ 25 each , no call center

First Month

100 new leads = 10 responses = 5 appointments = 3 sales

$ 2500 spend - $ 6000 gross = $ 3500 profit

Second Month

100 new leads + 100 old leads = 20 responses = 10 appointments = 6 sales

$ 2500 spend - $ 12,000 gross = $ 9,500 profit

Third Month

100 new leads + 200 old leads = 30 responses = 20 appointments = 9 sales

$ 2500 spend - $ 18,000 gross = $ 15,500 profit

 

So after 3 months you have spent $ 7,500 to make $ 28,500.

 

I am using low numbers and the point is what ever you do, do it forever until it stops working.

 

The trigger leads we use, and sell. have close to a 8% response rate, they include call centers , websites ,IVR and a great mail piece.

 

At under $ 3 each , you could send 1000 pieces a month get 80 responses - 40 appointments - 16 sales

$ 3,000 spend - $ 32,000 gross = $ 29,000 profit

 

If you don't have someone calling the leads as soon as they hit, don't do leads.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Saraceno on May 18, 2011 at 2:23pm

Thank you dE members for all the time and effort you put into supporting me with this questiion!



Chris Saraceno

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