October 28, 2008-Dealix/Cobalt study, only eight percent of third-party leads that resulted in a sale, closed at the dealer who received the original lead. Jon Osborn, research director at J.D. Power and Associates, “It is now more important than ever for dealers to cast as wide a net as possible toward the limited supply of vehicle shoppers.”..."How you follow-up and how often you do it can be equally as important, however."...
-Less than 10 years ago a few large dealers would tell me that the "Internet" was a fad. Also, there was a marketing group that assembled a focus group hired by one of the large dealer groups at the time that convinced them NOT to invest in e-commerce and only spend their ad money in print. This unmentioned company never evolved their selling model of customer's shopping for a vehicle online and guess what happened? Gone with the dust but I think that they still operate a small buy here pay here used car lot.
Look at it now and where it's going-Live video collaboration is the new retail automotive selling model-Pete Latsoudis
