Question...

Has anybody used Vehix.com for a lead company?

If so would you recommend them?

Is there a Lead company any one would recommend?

Thank you

Bob

I believe THGG's Robert Gruen was a car guy, no?

LOL. A debate? No. Just looking for full disclosure which you provided and I appreciate.

I wish you nothing but good luck.

Take care.

DeCoder74,

Just so you dont have to speculate here are the facts:

I do work in Novato, CA for a company called iMagicLab (formerly iCarMagic). I did step out of the dealership, giving up my Internet Manager title. I did move my family across the country from a small dealer group in Indiana...

All for my belief in the products at iML. If you are looking for a debate I will happily meet you in any public forum to discuss software in the Automotive Retailing space, fyi.

Jake, sounds like you work for a certain ILM/CRM based in Novato, CA...wait, perhaps you do. Transparency is pretty high, fyi.

Maybe its due to issues like this that Higher Gear has you sign a LONG term contract when using their solutions......

Come to think of it, I think there is an ILM tool out there that measures the likeliness of your email templates getting blacklisted when you create them.

Like I mentioned before, be sure to shop around. The most expensive solution surely cannot be the best, can it?

Don't worry guys, there are alternatives to Higher Gear!

Be sure to shop around for an CRM or ILM tool that was actually developed by car guys for car guys!

Things like this are bound to occur with software. It does seem short-sighted that they would attach unknown.txt files in place of HTML in the message, but at least they fixed the issue quickly. Not being a user of automotive CRM, why does the system not recognize leads by email address? Are there security reasons for this?

I wonder what happened to there Quality Assurance(QA) process. Next time choosing a vendor ask them about there QA process. From a programmer view mistakes like this do happen in development... but should have been caught before going into production.

You could catch on to these errors by making your email servers part of feedback loop from AOL, Hotmail and others. This way any message that is marked SPAM you get a report and can look after them pro-actively. Hotmail goes a step further and provides you with delivery stats for a given day. Another thing to ask any provider that offers email campaigns is what is there policy on the spam rate. For example we will suspend an account for 10 spam complaints for each 5000 emails sent.

We just signed up with Higher Gear. This is not something I would have ever thought to ask them about. But I thought there was an ILM tool??

Hi,

Our store is on of the largest dealers of a quality import brand in the nation (800+ vehicles per month). We have an internet, fleet and bdc department. I agree with you, Jeff, on the importance of followup phone calls. Our bdc calls several hundred people back every day. They can be yesterday's visitors, last week's, or from three years ago. We don't try to sort out who is on the national DNC list. Because we use a very low key approach from a courtesy call follow-up approach, we rarely offend anyone. We have never been reported for violating the DNC list. If someone is irritated by a call, we apologize profusely and state we will immediately delete them off our contact list (which we do).

A majority of people are pleased with a courteous followup call. It gets us a good percentage of "beback" business and lets our prospects vent if they were mishandled on the sales floor (not that it ever happens, of course). Even if they don't buy from you, it neutralizes a lot of ill will.

Cheers

Hey Jeff,

Nice that you posted about the article and thanks for mentioning my site.

I will give you a few thoughts on this and please keep in mind, I am not a dealer.

I can see why you would be steamed, I think any car dealer would. While this may be upsetting, I also think there is another way to look this.

Instead of 'fighing' the user, embrace them. This may be very hard, maybe impossible but I suggest at least giving the following a try: look at the authors concerns or resistance in buying from you as opportunities for growth. Have a look at what he does not like about the process and see if that can be changed in your own dealership.

I don't know how reflective his experience is for all dealerships, but here are some things he did not like:

-dealers getting his phone number and being called after he visited the dealership
-getting back to the dealership and being played on by 'good cop' (dealer), 'bad cop' (his boss)
-being made to feel cheap for passing on upgrades
-psychological warfare as he puts it

Whether this is the case or not, it is important to realize that that is the perception of some buyers. If your dealership does employ some of these practices here are some questions to ask: are you comfortable with them being in place? Do these practices generate more sales than another way of doing business? Would you want that experience if you were buying a car and were not a dealer? What do these practices do for brand building and long term sales?

You can't fight the environment around you, see the sticking points of your customers as an opportunity to grow your business effectively. Improving the customer experience will generate more sales and keep your customers happy.

Maybe that is a naive outsiders perspective but that is the only one I have and I felt like sharing it.

Brian

Well I always like when an online entity sends out data on how the market is changing. I whole heartily agree that the market is changing and my generation X plus the y’s and the next are tech savvy and online. I would not however say pull your TV advertising or for that mater any of your advertising. It is time to change the way you look at it. The key I see if frequency and longevity. You need to hit your target where they are and with great creative to get them involved with your brand. That being said frequency is the easy part. Be there on the FM radio when their alarm goes off in the morning, hit them when they turn on the tube for the traffic report or morning sport cetner, or morning videos. Then sponsor al local pod cast, place a radio by with the local independent, top rated, or news stations. Buy some online advertising with local sports teams, online news papers, online automotive classifies, Vehix, Edmunds, or some other geographic targeted online advertising. Hit them again on their ride home and then be on their favorite TV shows. Have a multimedia marketing mix and stay with it. Stop thinking about what is going to sell me more cars this month and start thinking about a plan that will sell you more cars year over year!

Just make sure you are targeting your customers with the right message at the right time. Hit them in every step of the sales funnel with. Don’t buy what you watch or listen to unless you are your targeted demographic and please find yourself a niche so you will be around in 5 years.

Thanks for all the great data Jeff and Mr. Bonnell!

I think this information brings a lot to light that all us Gen-X, Y & Z'ers have known for a long time now.... Traditional TV (and old-school advertising in general) is of a dying breed! Until TV conglomerates and Newspapers alike find a magical way to:

Effectively measure the amount of impressions made on their audience, the amount of leads generated from that advertising and can justify the ridiculous amount of $$ they want for that 30-second spot after that Late Night Re-Run nobody watches....

They WILL see the same demise as the great Disco Music I am so happy to have been born after!

Why would a savvy Dealership throw money into the dark hole that is local TV advertising without ANY WAY of measuring the results generated from their hard-earned $$'s spent? Especially when they can INVEST in Web-based advertisements and a good CRM tool that will track the results of their advertising and provide them with accurate data. They can then analyze the data from their advertisements and decrease the amount of advertising $$'s spent and see an increase in ROI along with a LOWER cost per sale?

Just my two cents Mr. Kershner!

Hey Jeff:

I spent 11 years in advertising sales for a regional cable television system. Being there when it all began, I was able to watch as the (then new) concept of placing localized television commercials within National class programming - make television advertising a reality for dealerships in many markets. Dealers especially benefited in major markets where broadcast television advertising just wasn't financially viable.

Now what I see beginning to happen, and become an option for regional dealerships is geo-targeted advertising on National calibre websites. Ad sizes have standardized, and there is now a viable case for agencies to put together media plans which include a variety of National sports, news, entertainment and enthusiast websites.

Not only will dealerships increasingly be able to consider incorporating Flash ads on cnn.com, weather.com, univision.com, si.com, and dozens of of "national" websites - with geographically targeted exposure.

Couple that with the use of Flash animated ads, and the ads themselves are not simply - "click through to my websites" ads - but they can deliver enough message and garner enough excitement to bring the campaign's essential advertising message onto the screen itself - and can deliver the dealership's sales message without clicking through to anywhere.

I was recently asked to prepare just such a media plan for a small dealership group. They were considering taking their television budget and moving it to just such an online plan. The $45,000 monthly budget included online ads on major area radio and sports team, and newpaper sites as well, and would deliver 2.35 million ad impressions each month.

Although the dealership didn't pull the trigger in this case, just the fact that the plan was seriously considered, to me, shows that this transition will be happening for real more and more.

- Jeff Bonnell
mjmi.com

While we are dealing with items within the vicinity of Coupons for your dealer website – Do they really work? | DealerRefresh, Purchase coupons online and print them at home. Doing so can save you at least 50% on the face value of the coupons.

Speaking from the retail sales side. Coupons are just another piece of the marketing pie. However small the increase in the sites conversion ratio is, it is better to have it than not. On the consumer side, It allows them to get that "I've got something up on people who are not clever enough to use the Internet" feeling. Bonus!

Coupons should be easy for you to sell against and replace. I would just browse the web for anyone with a coupon and give them a call. I have one customer that has already received 90 leads this month with a closing ratio of close to 20%, I don't think you could get him to change for any reason. Why? Because for some they work and some they don't.
Just like some dealers sell Hondas and some sell Hummers, everybody likes something different. By the way, this dealer gives window tint away. Big deal, it cost them about $110 to the deal.

One other thing, for those who say that coupons cost them money when the customer throws it in at the last minute have to consider 2 things. First, they probably received training on holding back from previous experience with various sales tactics. Not dissimilar to holding back on the trade or other techniques. The other thing and the most important one is this, if you received a lead on John Doe and he walks in and you are not prepared to ask him for the coupon you got the lead from, you whiffed that ball. All you have to do is find them in your CRM before working your deal with them.

Bottom line, some like coupons some don't. Coupons work for some and not others, same with numbats. Not everyone is going to like them, that's what keeps life interesting.

By the way, I think it's a great product. Good luck with it.

Coupons are a waste of time and a joke. I despise them, they are a gimmick. I also get mad when I visit a site and they pop up, it is aggravating. The coupon does not guarantee a faster response nor does it really save money when you have to quote a low price anyway. The coupon just generates a lead. There are many other better ways to generate leads. How many times has a customer tried to use the coupon as an excuse to save even more money? It creates more bad then good. In order to create a lead and get a customer interested the site needs something eye catching and something unexpected. Visit www.paramushonda.com or www.riversideaudi.com or www.gardenstatehonda.com . Now tell me what catches your attention and your eye on that site? You are on a car dealer website and you see a little creature that has nothing to do with cars. Now tell me if you naturally click on it. If you click on it you will submit a lead because curiosity will always kill the cat. Now you generate leads instead of aggravate a customer and tempt them to leave your site without contacting you.

I can't recall ever selling a car to someone who said it was the coupon that motivated them to get in the car and drive to the dealership. I found it was the ones that were already on their way to buy the car and taking on last look at the website before coming in decided to print it out. They were also the type to pull the coupon out after the deal had been made and demand that they get another $250 off the car. My suggestion it to put a disclaimer on the coupon, that it has to be presented first or off advertised price. As much as I despise pop-ups I do hear they generate a lot of leads. Dealers without them on their site say they want them. One thing I haven't seen is a popup specifically for new cars that advertises the manufacturers rebates or special finance rates. That doesn't cost you anything at closing.

I first had a normal $250 off any vehicle purchase which did next to nothing but then switched it to $250 Gas Card with any vehicle purchase. Well, it made a nice difference until the sales people started cannibalizing the heck out of it. All of a sudden every person they spoke to just happened to see it online, friends, relatives, 98 year old women you name it they saw it. Plus the stigma of "Pop Ups" seems to leave a bad taste in peoples mind about our site. So in a nut shell, I'm split on the matter. Thanks Tom

Great question, Jeff. I know that we have several dealerships using them and all of them love them, but there is one in particular that seems to be blowing away their leads per day and it's because they know their audience. They are offering a give away geared toward their market segment which is netting them on average about 10-15 leads a day. Again I know that we have all seen those generic lock in your internet savings now etc coupons, but until you know your audience and market to them correctly it's just another bell on your web site that might or might not get you a lead.

Excellent subject, Jeff! CarLeadsOnline.com has been offering discout certificates for over a year now and the dealers love it. Dealers tell us that they close between 20% and 30% of these leads that come from their own website.
These leads aren't from 3rd party sites, but from your site, the one you have been marketing and optimizing (hopefully). What a great way to measure the effectiveness of your own web presence.

In fact, not only do you get the name, phone number, email address, vehicle of interest and a possible appointment time set, we also offer an extensive html followup system.

Give us a call for a free 30 day test drive. We will let you put us to the test on our nickel.

Jay Traylor
CarLeadsOnline.com
832.661.6472

From where I sit, I get to see an overview from our dealership clients. Many of them like to do new/used purchase coupons. I am all for adding as many merchandising angles to a dealership's site as possible, so that you can pique the interest of the greatest number of visitors.

A shortfall I often see, is that the offer is placed centrally as an opening pop up or pop under and is usally a small amount, and applies to any vehicle. This means the dealer settles for a weak offer that can apply to any car. For example, a $100 coupon off of a $40,000 vehicle.

In a dealership website a much more powerful couponing opportunity is at the car-by-car level, but that has to be administered at a more active level by the ISM.

Alternatively, careful data handling and pricing rules in a website could safely automate the couponing process. By strengthening the couponing angle in the advertising copy that is written into the website - to talk up the presense of the Internet coupons - you should be able to entice visitors to drill down into inventory a little further, and increase your conversion ratios by making the coupon offers in exchange for customer contact info.

At that level also, you've moved beyond the pop-up blocker situation which is probably influencing classic window popped coupons.

I love sales coupons - yes, they do potentially lose you a bit of front end gross, but I've never seen this to be the case in practice. In practice, we close 30%+ of all customers who print out one of our sales coupons - pretty much regardless of dollar value. And our grosses on the coupon deals far exceed our normal grosses. So I'm a huge fan of coupons, even as a pop-under ( which I otherwise despise. )