BLOG FOR SPECIAL FINANCE CAR DEALERS
The Differences Between New, Used, and Special Finance Leads
With all the traditional forms of advertising inundating consumers why do many choose to go online? In general, people go online because they feel it will broaden their choices, save them time and money, and reduce conflict. This is the reason that sites like Amazon.com and Ebay have become so popular. Let’s say for example you wanted to buy, an 8 by 5 foot red, yellow and orange, rug.
To find such a rug you could get in your car and spend hours traveling to a handful of local retailers. On the other hand, you could save some time, grab the local phone book, and let your fingers do the walking by calling local rug shops, or you could search for the desired product all over the world by going on line.
If you choose the latter, you’ll probably end of on a site such as Amazon or Ebay that lists numerous 8 by 5 red, yellow and orange, rugs from various vendors, sorted by price. Mission accomplished, you have many items to choose from, it didn’t take much time to find them, you’re confident that you’ll find the best price vs value combination, and you’ll avoid conflict by not having to negotiate with a sales person.
Consumers choose to interact with these third party automotive sites for the same reason our rug shopper ended up on Amazon or Ebay, more choices in less time and to save money with reduced conflict. Most dealership personnel are familiar with third party automotive sites and their Internet Leads, OEM’s send you new car quote requests, and most stores have their used cars listed on various third party websites.
How do these traditional types of online auto loan leads, though, differ from special finance leads? With a new car lead, the shopper has an interest in the cheapest new car model. After completing the quote form, they expect to be contacted by a car dealer that carries that model. Used car leads are even more granular, the lead expects to be contacted from the store that has the vehicle they were interested in.
There is not such expectation with a sub prime internet lead. With special finance leads we would hope that the lead is expecting a call from a dealer but the fact is that some leads expect to be contacted by a financial institution, not a dealer. In other words, the lead either does not know which store is processing their application or they don’t know their application is being processed by an auto dealer. This point cannot be overstated so I will say it again; the lead normally does not know which store is processing their application, in some instances the lead does not even know their application is being processed by an auto dealer.
For the reasons stated in the last paragraph I recommend that when contacting special finance leads you:
- Do not identify your franchise when leaving a voicemail, do so only after you speak with the prospect
- Do not utilize an auto responder and do not identify your franchise information via email until initial contact has been made.
If you follow these recommendations you should see an increase in the amount of leads your able to make initial contact with.