How to Increase Dealer Website Leads and Grow Car Sales

January 30, 2013 - 5:25 am

Regardless of your dealership auto sales numbers, odds are that you want them higher. A key target to increase car sales is to create and maximize your auto lead strategy. Perhaps the most affordable way to generate more auto leads and ensure a personal response to queries is with automotive chat software. On average, 26 percent of visitors on a car lot result in a car deal. What if you could find a way to improve your success with automotive leads so that number jumps to 35 or 45 or even 50 percent or higher?

The first step is to examine your automotive lead sources. You generally can’t change your dealership’s location, most stores have a professional automotive website, and attentive managers generally examine their third party auto lead sources on nearly a monthly basis, so which one of these is ripe for a massive return on investment? Your dealership website. By now you have probably spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build and promote your online presence with automotive software and auto website services. The easiest way to generate more car sales from your website is to offer live customer support with an online website chat solution. Using a dealer live chat service is like having a BDC in the cloud around the clock. (Ask us about our FREE automotive website chat software!)

Can you imagine putting in the effort to get prospects on your lot and having your staff ignore them? Then why would you ignore them on your automotive website? With the prevalence of social networking and car buyers who are used to communicating anywhere and any time, a dealership website chat solution is the ideal way to engage your customers the moment they visit your dealership website, build an instant rapport by providing instantaneous response to their questions, and – most importantly – generate an automotive lead.

One of the best features of a live automotive chat solution is that it can be tailored to integrate into your current automotive lead processes. First, you have the option of installing software on your own computers for your automotive sales team or business development center (BDC) to use. Car dealers who want to engage their customers around the clock can take advantage of a hosted automotive chat service with highly-trained automotive chat operators available 24 hours a day and seven days a week with proven live chat scripts (more than 60 percent of our live chat queries result in a lead), whether your dealership is open or closed. This hosted live option is popular because many of the live chat sessions are actually inquiries for the service department. Finally, for dealers who like to manage all their car sales processes in-house but still want to create more automotive website leads around the clock, a backup or hybrid dealership chat solution is a great option.

No matter which automotive web chat option you choose, one of the keys to increase automotive website leads is to ensure your process responds within seconds of a prospect initiating a live chat session. Then you want to provide the shopper with the appropriate information for your sales process. MOST IMPORTANTLY, you want to generate a sales lead and turn it into a car sale!

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Statistics prove that an average of 8 cars are sold per day at dealerships, and if you’re not happy with this number or can’t seem to get past it, change your auto lead strategy! Your competitors conversion rates are simply on the pinnacle and this may be partly due to their marketing campaigns and significantly due to how they address their potential. Take for example, 30 visitors walking into your auto dealership per day, of which just 8 drive a new car off your lot, which is a meager 26% and is not something to boast about. What if you had an auto lead approach that brought in the same 30 visitors, but this time you see sales in excess of 50%!

If you agree with the later and are eager to get started, dealership chat is the route to explore. An auto lead from a third party vendor is similar to fishing in the dark, you don’t know what to expect. With live chat installed on your dealership website, each auto lead is a product of your own marketing efforts considering the fact that you’ve spent thousands in designing and internet marketing strategies. An auto lead generated in house holds more substance and potential than a third party lead simply because most of the prepping and sales driven interaction has already been completed by the live chat staff.

Another notable characteristic of implementing auto dealership live chat is that you are working with a company that is backed by over 40 years of expertise, which ensures that you will only be exposed to the cream of the crop. If you’re a smart auto dealer, you probably realize that your visitors must be somehow converted into sales and dealership chat simply makes your business go 24/7. This interactive approach is a great way to build rapport with your potential customers, and put you a few notches ahead of your competition by transforming them into loyal clientele.

These live chat auto leads are sent directly to your dealerships CRM or email, which have a higher potential of being converted into sales by your team. With an auto lead from dealership chat, you are able to greet the customer with the test drive of their choice, which save your sales staff time and increases productivity levels. Sales driven individuals strive hard to boost their commissions, and a healthy auto lead is definitely a great way to keep them smiling.

Automotive dealership chat can be regarded as a soft sell approach, without much effort as the auto lead that comes in is from a potential customer who likes your product. Your dealership may have a spur in traffic, but if you’re not able to capture and convert them into sales, you have not justified your investment. What if eBay entitled sellers to a live chat option with their listing? It would be a sales haven! Visitors to your website will have a number of questions, and the absolute way to answer and transform them is with a live chat interface.

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