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Best Practices for Auto Finance Trigger Leads
When a person applies for an automobile loan their information is for sale, as a lead, the next day. Since applying with an automotive finance company triggered the event, these leads are known as auto finance trigger leads. Trigger leads are typically sold by credit score range and attributes of the credit report, such as no repossessions in the last year and no open bankruptcies.The information available from an automotive trigger lead is limited to the prospects name, address, and home phone number. This data is extracted from the applicant’s credit file which may have not been updated at the time of application. Some vendors utilize a reverse append service to validate the data as well as compare the data with the national do not call list. Prices for the data alone range from $1.00 for non-exclusive, unverified data to $3.00 for verified, exclusive data.Typically, vendors that sell trigger leads combine the sale of the leads with a direct mail fulfillment program. An auto financing offer, or big sale notice, is mailed to each prospect directing them to your store. This hands off approach is easy for the dealership, however, the results would be much better if the dealership dedicated a little time and effort to process the leads themselves, not to mention, a lot more cost effective.If your mail is being dropped by a non local company it may take up to 3 days for the prospect to receive your offer. Instead of having an out of state third party mail to the prospects, try doing it in-house.Prospects that applied for an auto loan yesterday are usually available by 9:00 am. As part of your process, down load the list first thing in the morning, then merge the list with a letter template, and deliver them quickly to your local post office. With this process, it’s likely some of the prospects, especially the ones in that share your store’s zip code, will receive your offer the very same day. By getting your offer in front of theses prospects three days earlier you will have a much higher response rate.The next step is to call the number listed for each prospect. From experience, slightly over 50% of the phone numbers are accurate. If you reach the prospect or their voicemail simply ask them if they have received the auto finance offer that you recently mailed them, or the invitation to the big sale that you are having. Regardless of how they respond, ask them if they are currently in the market to purchase a vehicle.The last step is to mail, at or near 5 days, an expiration notice to the prospects that you could not reach.If you have tried the hands off approach to Auto Finance Trigger Leads in the past but were selling less than 2 cars per 150 leads, I would suggest you try it again and utilize the process outlined above. Additionally, I would suggest focusing on the lowest end of the credit score spectrum that your store is able finance; the lower the score range, the greater the response will be.
March 11th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
i just discovered your site. excellent post. how long have you been writing? this is good writing. are you a journalist aswell? anyway, thanks again. subscribing to the rss :).
April 15th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Great information, thanks for sharing! Utilizing software within auto dealerships is key to staying on top of the ever-changing fast-paced industry.
May 13th, 2010 at 5:12 am
Nice post! Here’s one for ya… In a hierarchical organization, the higher the level, the greater the confusion.
June 12th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Repair your credit score: Whether you happened to come across any problems and flaws in your credit report it would be advisable to get it rectified from any credit scoring report bureaus as quickly as possible. Regular updating your credits score must actually help you clean up your credit score in a big way.
June 30th, 2010 at 12:33 am
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