How’s Your Dealership Phone Up Game?

In Part 1: The Real Cost of Unanswered Calls, we uncovered how much money you’re potentially losing in the marketing spend and sales profit due to inbound phone calls going unanswered. I wish I could tell you that’s the only thing you need to fix, but an even bigger problem lurks ahead.

Part 2: Leads that never make it into the CRM

Let’s keep this story going using the 550 Facebook campaign call leads as an example. A study by foureyes.io notes that on average 13.3% of phone sales prospects do not make it into the CRM. 

What’s that costing you?

• 550 Click to Calls x $2.24 = $1,232
• Let’s subtract the 23% that go unanswered = 424 answered calls.
• 424 answered calls x 13.3% that don’t get logged in the CRM = 56 opportunities per month/672 per year
• Those leads lost cost the dealership $125.44 per month; $1,505 per year
• If we assume you can sell 12.5% (close rate) of those = 7 sales lost per month, 84 sales lost per year
• Assume a $2,000 profit per sold = $14,000 profit loss per month; $168,000 profit loss per year.

The loss tally so far…

	Per Month	Per Year
Part 1: Unanswered Calls Marketing Budget Loss	$282.24	$3,386
Part 1: Unanswered Call Sales Profit Loss	$28,000	$336,000
Part 2: Leads not entered in CRM Marketing Budget Loss	$125.44	$1,505
Part 2: Leads not entered into CRM Sales Profit Loss	$14,000	$168,000
Total Loss	$42,407.68	$508,892.16

Let’s also keep in mind the bad word of mouth you’ll receive and the good word of mouth your competitor will receive in the process, which makes the loss even greater in the grand scheme of things. You indirectly told the shopper to “try another dealer” because you’re too busy to answer the phone.

Guess what happens next? In a knee-jerk reaction, you start cutting budgets on items that are truly producing results, yet you’re failing to realize the real problem is lack of proper staffing to handle the marketing efforts. Now, you’re cutting budgets and cutting opportunities to sell more cars. Two wrongs don’t make things right; it just put you further in the red against your goals.

There is a solution! And no, you don’t have to spend time interviewing and hiring more bodies to man the phones to get the job done. Before revealing the no-brainer solution, prepare for Part 3: On Hold & Transfer Hell.