Obviously it does or I wouldn’t write this article. So you can say “duh” to me. You can expand that “duh” by adding “automation ensures every lead gets a quote to engage with.” Humans tend to overthink which leads should get a quote, and I was no exception during my Internet Manager days. For ease of process, unless you’re dealing with a lead provider who already quoted loan and lease options, I recommend automating a quote to every lead.
How well does it works is the question.
We looked at a comparison of dealers with similar inventory sizes and lead counts for the month of November 2021. This is an interesting month as we were in the peak of a depleted new car inventory stock across the nation. It is “the great equalizer” when it comes to stats comparing car dealerships. Yes, I also feel “the great equalizer” is a crappy statement to make. I wish there were more new cars to sell!!!
Dealers who automated SALESiQ quotes, from their CRM systems, doubled the amount of engaged customers. 2x more of their internet leads played with quotes and 6x more of those leads were HIGHLY engaged. Highly engaged shoppers browse multiple vehicles, play with trade numbers, payoffs, rebates, finance products and multiple payment programs. Many also react to what they see.
3x more customers clicked “I want to buy this car” and 4x more clicked “I want a trade appraisal.” 3x more customers made multiple visits to the quote.
We are not talking about 7 customers vs. 14 customers when I mention “double” or “3x more.” We are talking about SIGNIFICANT differences of numbers per store. The average number of highly engaged shoppers was 186 vs. 30 for example. That is an average of 186 vs. 30 highly engaged shoppers per store. You needed to read that twice because it is six times more!
Dealerships used in this comparison had an average number of new cars in inventory of 14 (up 10% from October) and the average number of used cars was 66 in November 2021.
We measure those highly engaged shoppers as Cherry Leads in the SALESiQ and SERVICEiQ systems. Our team is happy to walk you through it, so schedule a demo if you can use some automation in your dealership.
