Stale leads / follow up?

[Mico Silver]

Here is what worked for me personally: we used DeakerSocket, and as an Internet manager I would mark leads as lost after 90 days or by request ("no longer in the market"). Then I would blast lost leads once to twice per month. I would actively collect as many orphan leads as possible, and at one point I had over 15K active email leads. DS would allow to send an email blast to all "lost leads", and it took 15 minutes to update the template and send it out.
Here is what I would send:
Beginning of the month: "These used cars are going to an auction"
Last week of the month: "Lease specials".

I would keep the emails in plain text, no images, as informative and clear as possible, with hyperlinks to specific cars. Every month I would get a few sales from leads years old, that never responded before.

So, if I could do that as a sales person - it should be very easy for a dealership to follow this template.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

It's not the CRM or the sales rep. It's the customer. They are either interested or they are not. If they aren't responsive after a couple of days, the only way you're going to get a response is buying bugging them enough to tell you to leave them the hell alone. You're either being blocked or they are using their spam email account. For crying out loud think about what YOU do when YOU send a "lead" in for something. I have a Yahoo account I NEVER look at. It only exists to get my "10% off your first purchase." We should save ourselves the time and effort. If they aren't responding, move on. Even if you do pull out 1 out of 50, is it worth annoying the hell out of the other 49? I know some vendor is going to jump in here at some point and say, "Well our service increases lead response after... by X%" No it doesn't. Just stop it. I've seen all of your services. They don't work. You aren't changing customer behavior on this one. I consider myself one of the most open-minded dealers out there on any subject, but I'll die on this hill of negativity on this one.

Too-Shay Bill!! And there's plenty of data available to support this.

I have a Yahoo account I NEVER look at. It only exists to get my "10% off your first purchase."

Exactly. I've had the same 3 accounts I use for shopping for over 13 years. Of course the average consumer does the same.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Here is what worked for me personally: we used DeakerSocket, and as an Internet manager I would mark leads as lost after 90 days or by request ("no longer in the market"). Then I would blast lost leads once to twice per month. I would actively collect as many orphan leads as possible, and at one point I had over 15K active email leads. DS would allow to send an email blast to all "lost leads", and it took 15 minutes to update the template and send it out.
Here is what I would send:
Beginning of the month: "These used cars are going to an auction"
Last week of the month: "Lease specials".

I would keep the emails in plain text, no images, as informative and clear as possible, with hyperlinks to specific cars. Every month I would get a few sales from leads years old, that never responded before.

So, if I could do that as a sales person - it should be very easy for a dealership to follow this template.

With the right service provider, this can all be automated.

 

[Marc Lavoie]

It is very much an individual thing. Some staff members take great pride in their follow up, and love the challenge of resurrecting a once thought "dead lead".

To me, the most challenging are the non responsive leads. After about 5 days, I lose faith in them.

Time to automate follow-ups pushing massive amounts of value!

 

[The QR Code Guy]

Depends on if we get engagement. If they responded at some point it can go on a little longer. Even if they open an email at least as well. But a lead that never responds is dead after 5 days.

Messaging needs to be contextually valuable to the customer in order to maximize engagement. Customers are experts at ghosting sales messages, and sometimes poor messaging makes it easier for them to ghost.