December is the month of giving. Throughout the year, our clients, our partners, and our readers, have given us tons of support and inspiration. Joe, myself, and the entire DealerKnows team would like to thank you for gifts that could not fit under any tree.
It also seems that manufacturers are in the giving spirit, as well. While some are giving consumers fantastic incentives, others are giving dealers the lead equivalent of an ugly sweater. We’re not entirely sure when it became OK to send dealerships leads from customers with zero intent to purchase, but the practice seems to be doing alive and well for the month of December. While most find this practice deplorable, dealers need to consume these leads, and wear that ugly sweater to uncle Dan’s Christmas party.
While we cannot give you Scarlett Johansson or Hugh Jackman to offset the ugly sweater, we can help you out with those craptastic OEM leads. You know which ones I’m talking about…those missing a phone number, no discernible vehicle chosen or submitted with obviously fake names. In the spirit of giving, DealerKnows wants to give you its Handraiser Template. Admittedly, this was written for a certain OEM (whose cylindrical offices are located in downtown Detroit), however we’re finding it to be more broadly applicable to other OEM Third-Party leads. We’re finding a few manufacturers are going the way of the Grinch, snatching-up leads from the unlikeliest of places such as malls, carnivals, Whoville, and amusement parks, all in an effort to give away shirts, hats, and the chance to meet Tony Stewart. To make sure we’re not giving you tools without instruction, I want to give you a couple directions.
It’s become commonplace to receive leads from providers with different tags, so it’s important we understand how to make the distinction. Most of the OEMs send leads from the brands first (e.g. OEM.com), and then supplement the volume with other leads (e.g. OEM-Handraiser, OEM-Third Party). If the leads from these non-branded (read: third party) OEM sources are closing 4% less than the rest of your OEM sources (one of our stores has a 0.27% closing ratio with its handraiser leads vs. 6-8% with other OEM sourced leads), now you’ll know what box to throw all of your ugly sweaters into.
With the directions out of the way, let’s get to the template. Although you may have to adjust the merge fields and break up the text accordingly, you can just copy and paste it into your CRM/ILM. It goes as follows:
Hello [CUSTOMER FIRST NAME], I was just alerted that you submitted an inquiry indicating that you have some questions regarding our line-up of quality (MAKE) vehicles. As one of the largest dealers in the entire area, all General Motor-sponsored sites ask us to reach out and ensure that you have all of your questions answered. You’ve come to the right place. Please let me know if you’d like me to
a) Mail you a brochure
b) Email you vehicle information/specs/pricing on a specific vehicle
c) Detail our available inventory and schedule a test drive
d) Call you with our guaranteed no-hassle pricing
In the meantime, if you have any specific questions, I can be reached at [DEALER PHONE]. We appreciate you taking the time to look into our amazing selection of (MAKE) vehicles and we will gladly provide you all of the world-class service and value you have come to expect from our products. I look forward to hearing from you and please don’t hesitate to call. [SALESPERSON SIGNATURE]
As the old Christmas adage goes, giving is better than receiving. Your uncle Dan thinks he’s giving you a gift, and you should offer some thanks for it. Give all of your leads the benefit of the doubt. But also give your personnel a means to efficiently process leads with little-to-no chance of closing. We believe these leads have such a small propensity to result in a sale, it simply isn’t worth your team’s time to follow up for the usual 90-120 days. This template and a phone call should be sufficient. If you don’t yield any responses or results from this, hang up the stocking, and move onto the next one. And, please leave the ugly sweaters to Bill Cosby.
From our family to yours,
Happy Holidays from DealerKnows
