Having a strong lead follow-up process is crucial for any dealership’s success. The traditional mindset has been to generate as many leads as possible, but is that really effective? If you generate 1,000 leads a month, but 180 are out of market by the next week, does quantity really matter? There’s a better way. Instead of accepting an 18% failure rate, dealers should ask what they can do to improve follow-up processes to become more effective, sell more cars, grow share, and improve sales effectiveness. Laser focusing your follow-up on only in-market leads can drive more meaningful results and boost your dealership’s performance (and it might be easier than you think).

In an ongoing interview series with CBT News, Urban Science Global Product Director and leading voice in automotive retail insights, Eric DeMont, discusses SalesAlert™. Urban Science’s industry only solution, notifies car dealers when a sales lead has purchased a vehicle from another dealership – same or competitive brand – and helps dealerships maximize effectiveness by empowering dealers to learn from their losses, improving selling skills, processes and algorithms.

SalesAlert integrates with a dealership’s customer relationship management (CRM) system and taps the power of Urban Science’s unrivaled industry sales* data, which is updated daily, to identify lost sales across dealerships, brands and locations. It then notifies dealers daily about sales lost to other stores. The result: no more time or resources wasted chasing prospects that are no longer in the market.

“Tapping the power of daily industry sales data is critical in positioning dealers to be as efficient and effective as possible in their lead-pursuit efforts, but that’s just part of the equation,” said DeMont. “Data must be presented in easy-to-use technology that serves up insights that inform optimal (dealer) actions and ultimately drive dealerships forward. That’s what we’ve created in SalesAlert, a true best-in-class technology that not only gives dealers an unrivaled view of lost sales, but better positions dealership leaders and sellers to learn from their losses to inform science-driven sales and marketing strategies in the future as well.”

Watch Eric explain how SalesAlert works and why dealers are snapping it up.

Solving Lead Defection Once and For All

Optimized through in-depth collaboration with dealers nationwide, SalesAlert features an interface built for seamless connectivity and ease of use. In addition to its core mission to make sales processes more efficient, it also delivers several secondary benefits:

• Empowers dealership leaders to better support and encourage their sellers by focusing sales efforts on prospects who are still shopping.
• Enables more targeted and effective opportunities for coaching related to lost sales.
• Improves seller morale by reducing frustration related to pursuing dead leads.
• Improves customer experience by helping eliminate unwanted follow-up.

Why Collaboration is Key to Leveraging Dealership Data

In this segment, Eric and Shaun Kniffin (also known as “Niff”), Marketing and Technology Director at Germain Motors, discuss the vital role of vendor collaboration in dealership success. They explore how working together has enhanced the customer buying experience and streamlined dealership operations, instilling confidence in business processes. Urban Science’s commitment to addressing mission critical dealer challenges through partnerships, or “vendorships” as Niff calls them, is a key reason he values our collaboration.

Urban Science data has significantly boosted Germain’s targeting efficiency and overall operations. Niff emphasizes the importance of partnering with experienced data providers to prevent customer defections and enhance retention, which is crucial for the future success of dealerships.

De-mystifying Dealership Defection Rates

Dealers want to know the reasons for defections so they can tighten up processes. Until Urban Science developed SalesAlert and integrated it with TrafficView™, which meshes CRM data with Urban Science’s unrivaled industry sales data, it was exceedingly difficult for many dealers to find a tool that explained the why behind customers leaving their business.

In this segment of Driving Solutions, Eric talks with host Jim Fitzpatrick about how clients like Motor City GMC grew market share, reduced defections, and increased close rates.

Visit the Urban Science SalesAlert page for additional information about this industry first solution and its unique ability to empower U.S. auto dealers to drive efficiency and profitability and, in turn short- and long-term growth.

*Sales refers to vehicle unit sales and does not represent vehicle price or revenue.