Digital Leads Are Rubbish, Or Are They? - Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Digital leads are rubbish!

I can't tell you how often I have heard that.

One time we were running a new campaign to generate digital leads. We received a significant quantity of them which I duly distributed to the sales team. The feedback started coming in quickly "These leads are rubbish!" This went on for a few days, I would ask the sales team how they were getting on with them "Not good" was the usual reply.

I also was being asked how we were getting on with them "Not good" I'd reply. "The sales team are saying they're not great quality."

I didn't like giving that feedback because I wasn't 100% convinced they were poor quality. Not because I doubted the words of my team, but because I hadn't rang any of the leads myself. I needed a better understanding of their quality.

I got on the phone.

From six phone calls I got through to three people, set two appointments which I gave to the sales team and monitored the progress. We closed two sales.

What happened? Was I that much better than my team? I don't believe so. What else could it be? They were all very capable sales execs but something was amiss.

Here's what happened;

Because of the volume of these leads, they were seen as inferior quality. A few early calls were made without success. The team then start talking and saying to each other "These leads are rubbish!" The effort levels when contacting them goes way down. We stop sending videos. We make one call and give up. Then we stop making any calls at all.

The prophecy is fulfilled. We believed the leads were poor, the leads were poor.

How do we negate that? By having a digital lead process which we stick to. If we have a robust process that we adhere to our conversion rates will dramatically increase. Car Dealers are leaving too much money on the table by not having a digital lead process.

What is your digital lead process? Do you have one? What is your digital lead conversion rate?

There are many knock on effects for us not sticking to our process;

• Cost per acquisition increases

• Lower ROI

• Missed new/used car targets

• Lower income for both dealership and sales exec

• Less future retention opportunities

Not only have we not sold today, we have lost the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Every time we lose a customer today, we lose an opportunity to retain that customer in 3/4 years.

So what do we do?

1. Review your digital lead process

2. Calculate your conversion rates Digital lead to appointment Appointment to test drive Test drive to sale

3. Understand what good looks like. Who's your best performers and why

Are your digital leads rubbish or have you treated them like rubbish?