Are certain metrics throwing off your used car and lead management strategies?

Welcome to this week’s episode of Used Cars Weekly, the original CBT News show dedicated to bringing car dealers best practices and tips for the used car department, in-depth dealer interviews, hands-on dealership strategies, as well as vendor analysis. Today, host Jasen Rice, founder of Lotpop, discusses used car management, lead management, and the metrics that are throwing things off.

Customers and cars go hand in hand. There are a lot of metrics out here that CRMs are using that Rice thinks become less relevant when you start breaking down the inventory portion.

Closing percentage and leads to appointment ratios are key metrics in KPIs that dealerships spend tracking internet sales. They also use those to judge how well lead managers and internet managers are doing. If you start integrating and looking at inventory and lead management together, key metrics like closing percentages can easily be thrown off. You have to ask yourself, how many leads am I going to close?

Leads to appointment ratio can also get thrown off because of metrics. Rice says you may need to have how many appointments per car ratio instead of appointments per lead ratio. As an inventory manager, you have to understand there are certain cars that might not generate a lot of leads. If a customer comes in to purchase a $10,000 vehicle, you will have other ways to sell the car other than the internet.

Rice says your process should be based on the age of the car. As an inventory manager if you have a 60-day old car, every lead you have, you should be calling every day. Rice says you should act like it’s a fresh lead and have different word tracks. He says it’s an important metric but it can’t be your end all be all.

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