Consultants can talk for hours on which auto sales leads work best; dealer website chat generated leads, or third party auto sales leads. At the end of the day, it comes down to results. Which leads sell more cars? Which leads have better contact rates? Where should your dealer marketing money be invested?
You can’t deny the facts, when it comes to website leads vs third party leads, your website leads are going to be of higher quality. Why? You can be 100% certain that a visitor to your dealer website is there because they’re interested in what you are selling. They may be interested in buying a car, looking for an automotive part, or for vehicle service. These leads are all potentially money generating.
Dealer website chat captures auto sales leads, auto service leads, and parts leads. Many third party lead sources only focus on car sales leads .Visitors to your site are there for many different reasons.
Third party leads also target people who do not indicate they are necessarily in the market for a car. Many end up becoming a billable inquiry or lead to your inbox when they simply answer a survey question on a website. With the explosion of internet marketing, many vendors make money by offering people some sort of reward for answering questions. A common question seen on these surveys is “are you in the market for a vehicle, or will you be in the market in 6 months?”
People tend to click “Yes” on this question because they don’t think it commits them to anything. They do not know it gets them a phone call from you, which is often a surprise. Third party auto sales leads do not normally credit these leads back, and are more often than not, claiming these are valid leads.
Dealer website chat cuts down on the number of bad or invalid leads simply by capturing people who are in the market for vehicles, service, or parts. When you think about it, why else would these visitors be on your website?
Both chat leads and third party auto sales leads are real-time, typically. As in, they are sent to your inbox as they come in. There are some providers who send a batch file at the end of the day, but it’s always better to be right on top of your leads. You have a better chance of contacting a potential customer if you touch base within 30 minutes of submitting their information.
Dealer website chat enables you to chat in real time with the visitor with absolutely no delay. No more wondering if they are in front of their computer or if you are reaching them at a bad time. Since they are browsing your site, they’re available. Additionally, if they are at work, you don’t have to worry about bothering them. A lot of third party leads are acquired from online sites. Visitors will give their work number, but cannot get calls at work. With chatting, they are on your website, and likely they have the ability to interact with you.
While some people will swear by their third party sales leads, the facts surrounding the benefits of dealer website chat are too great to ignore. If you haven’t already, let this be the push in the direction of online chat that you need. Give it a try. What’s the worst that can happen? You sell more cars?