Managing Leads at Your Auto Dealership

The objective of online marketing has always been the same – getting new leads and converting them with the right proposition at the right time. However, it is absolutely essential to segment these leads into different groups. This can be based on different aspects, but the most straightforward method is splitting them depending on how far down the sales funnel they’re currently located.

Based on that grouping, what you offer to each lead needs to change as well. By doing this meaningfully, your auto dealership can maximize the chances of leads converting into actual paying customers. 

In this article, we will give you a few helpful ideas on how to do just that.

1. Early Stage Leads for Your Auto Dealership

Leads can be classified as early stage in the following cases:

• If they are first time visitors on your website
• If they visited only a single page and spent a very short amount of time before converting
• If they converted on an incentive 

Early stage leads are flexible about which car they want to buy, and are usually on the lookout for a brand that they trust and feel comfortable using.

The leads in this section are still researching which car to purchase, and usually don’t end up converting at all. However, if your vehicle dealership is lucky enough to capture one of these leads, it’s a great opportunity for you to grab them and influence every stage of their upcoming buying process. 

By providing them with sound advice on which car to buy, its features, details on financing and trading-in their existing car, vehicle comparisons and so on, you can be virtually guaranteed that they’ll trust your dealership all the way.

2. Late Stage Leads

Leads can be classified as late stage if they meet these parameters: 

• If they have visited the vehicle detail page (VDP) of a particular car multiple times
• If they have viewed VDPs of many similar vehicles
• If they have spent long amounts of time on your auto dealer website
• If they have converted on a particular vehicle 

Late stage leads are closer to buying, so your goal is to bring them onto your showroom floor.

Earn their business by simplifying their purchasing process and making it hassle-free and transparent. Giving them more detail about vehicles they showed an interest in, booking an appointment for a test drive, and helping them to start off the financing process are great ideas as well. 

Additionally, you can even try cross-selling and up-selling to late stage leads.

3. Lost Leads

All those redundant leads that have been lying idle in your CRM can be classified as lost leads. These leads may also be those who were never followed up with or successfully reached out to, for whatever reason. 

Simply offering generic information might do the trick in getting these leads back and converting them.

Once you get them to return, enter these leads into your early stage lead funnel.

4. Duplicate Leads

Duplicate leads are those leads who have already converted on your car dealer site, maybe even more than once in the past. As a result, they are some of the most highly qualified leads that you could possibly find, since they have already expressed interest repeatedly to do business with your vehicle dealership.

All they probably need to convert and become a paying customer of your auto dealership is a gentle nudge. How do you do this? In simple words, by giving them your undivided attention right away.

Reach out to them immediately, figure out what they want and what caused them to not convert during the previous occasions, and resolve any issues they may have.

5. Previous Clients

These are leads that have already converted and bought a vehicle from your vehicle dealership. Even if the deal is now closed, make sure that you don’t lose contact. Stay in touch. 

Send updates to these customers about special promotions going on at your dealership and service reminders on a regular basis, but be careful to not spam their inboxes. 

Always maintain a strong relationship with all your leads and customers, regardless of where they are in the purchasing cycle.

For more information on dealing with leads, Contact Us.