It's a Friday evening and a lead comes in from Dealix or AutoUSA at 8:12 pm. You call the customer right away (cause you know Friday night leads are Saturday morning appointments), you get them on the phone right away and schedule the appointment for Saturday morning. The customer arrives (late of course) and you demo the car, ask for the sale and close the customer. The end of the month rolls around and you hand in your MTD Sold sheet to the GM. The General Manager reviews your sales sheet and says..

"Well, I'm not sure if we should count this customer, they would have bought here anyways since we have sold them a car before."

The blood pressure rises, your face gets beet red and you say..OOkkayy.

You're thinking to your yourself..You prove to me that they would have bought from our dealer anyways! BUT on the flip side, YOU prove to the GM that they would have NOT bought from the dealer anyways.

So lets look at it this way..

What if..a customer lives in your hometown and also bought their last vehicle from you. They're on edmunds.com shopping for their next vehicle and narrowing down their choices. They decide to submit for a price quote from your dealer AND the next closest dealer. Your dealer isn't up on their game (or better yet, your dealer doesn't even purchase leads from that 3rd party lead provider and you never even get the lead), your competitive dealer gets the lead and makes the phone call right away. The customer answers and the sales person is GREAT on the phone...building rapport and making great conversation. Lets say the customer even says..."well, I like to keep my business local and I have bought my past cars from the local dealer" (yea, I know I'm digging deep here). The Internet sales person on the other end says "you know Mrs Smith, I totally understand and I appreciate the fact that you like to keep your business local BUT we are having a HUGE sale this weekend and I know I can save you thousands of dollars that you local dealer can't. We are a much larger dealer and are able to give larger discounts..what time Saturday morning can you come in?"

SO..you tell me, would that customer have bought from your dealer anyways?