The Phone Lead: The Most Abused of Them All!

Since the beginning of #DCDW, we’ve been highlighting the most abused lead of them all: the phone lead. Often originating from portals like Marktplaats or Autotrack, this lead has the highest conversion rate to appointments and sales. Yet it is mishandled in two major ways.

First, salespeople often underestimate the value of the conversation. Too often, we let a voicemail do the talking – a machine that answers, but doesn’t make appointments. That’s not the right way, because the customer keeps control and starts asking the questions.

The most common question, “Is the car still available?”, is often met with a short “yes”, when a better answer would be:
“Great to hear you’re interested in this Ligier JS60! Good news – it’s in stock and ready for a test drive. When would you like to come by?”

The second form of mishandling lies in how the ‘opportunity’ is recorded in the lead management system. If the salesperson enters the lead manually, with medium ‘phone’ and source ‘Marktplaats’, that’s fine. But in practice, most phone leads never get logged and only show up when the customer actually arrives at the dealership. Then suddenly the source becomes ‘walk-in’ and medium ‘showroom’. Many showroom sales are actually the result of prior phone leads.

Thanks to modern tools, this can now be solved. With Calldrip AI and integrations we provide with AM-I, LEF, Walcu, GRIPP, and Websolve, this can all be handled automatically.

What do we solve?

A phone lead calling the dealership dials a Calldrip call tracking number. With AI Call Scoring, Calldrip immediately determines if it’s a sales opportunity or something else, like a delivery or service call. If it’s a sales lead, it’s instantly pushed to the lead management system via our interface. Five minutes later, a full call summary appears, linked to Walcu CRM.

What does this mean?

If someone calls for the first time via Marktplaats and books an appointment, the lead is automatically created in the LMS. If the same customer calls two weeks later about, say, the service manual, Calldrip recognizes this isn’t a new sales lead – even if the portal would count it that way.

The phone lead becomes transparent and can be valued accordingly. For example, the graph below shows that most sales at Ligier Store Doesburg originated through the phone – further proof that this insight is critical.

And more?

Registering sales opportunities is just step one. With Calldrip Call Scoring, you can screen all your phone calls in full GDPR compliance. You’ll know exactly what topics customers call about most. These insights let you use AI to proactively give customers the info they’re looking for – easing the pressure on your phone lines. How? I’ll explain next time!