More leads, less sales? Here's the paradox. Ever felt overwhelmed by the chase for more leads? 🤔 Dealers often think more leads mean more sales. But here's the twist: More leads don't always equal more sales. Why? Because not all leads are created equal. We often build websites, thinking of ourselves, not the customers. Picture this: You visit a showroom, and before you even settle in, you're bombarded with questions and forms. Annoying, right? Yet, this happens on websites every day. Customers need time, space, and less friction. They need a process that works for THEM. Remember those forms back in 2016 that autofilled? They increased leads but decreased sales because they missed the mark on customer commitment. Instead of chasing more leads, focus on QUALITY. Understand your customer's journey. Build a seamless experience, not a cluttered one. Less friction means more meaningful interactions. Success lies in focusing on the right leads, not just more leads. Have you already tried changing your lead strategy? How did it go?
Jeff Scherer
9mo
Flooding the radar with leads is like packing a showroom with people just there for the free coffee—busy, but not buying. A dealership’s digital presence should feel like a test drive: smooth, intuitive, and built around the customer, not a clipboard full of questions. Focus on ‘connection’ over ‘collection.’
Todd Smith
10mo
Totally agree I feel the obsession with more leads has become a distraction from the real metric: CONVERSION. Dealers don’t need more noise; they need signal. The best-performing stores I’ve seen prioritize lead quality, intent signals, and timing. It's not about capturing a form fill it's about identifying who’s actually ready to buy and building a path that earns their trust. The hard truth? Most dealerships are sitting on enough leads already they just haven’t structured their process to convert them.
Allan Cooper
10mo
Kyle Mountsier - When Todd Smith and I first sold new vehicles, back in the dark ages some 40 years, the national average for a car salesperson was 10 vehicles per month. Decades later, despite all the digital platforms, genius marketing companies, modern technology and operational efficiencies offered by third party vendors and OEM’s the national average for a car salesperson is 10 vehicles per month. 10 Vehicles Per Month……40 years later……nothing has changed. Not a single digit improvement in the average, It’s not about focusing on the right leads, it’s not about quality. It’s about lifecycle ownership engagement of the existing customers a dealership has already nutured as a client. Leads become irrelevant as repeat sales and referrals dominant. Add in longevity of tenureship, a professional long sales force, well paid with a healthy work / life balance will drive sales. My old partner has stayed in the same PMA and moved through 6 dealerships selling the same brand (CJDR) over 40 years……he delivers 800 to 1000 new vehicles last year……as a salesman.
Duane Sanders
10mo
I watch OEM digital programs dump traffic on our website that is trash most of the time. Low engagement, minimal time on site and low VDP views. As Todd Smith points out the quality of the lead is what makes the difference. If we give our team higher quality leads they get engaged and provide a better customer experience. The answer is often not more leads.
Doug Reeves
9mo
Kyle Mountsier I think the problem is two fold: First dealers need solid data as to the performance of both lead sources and the staff, and second they need a solid, seamless experience. Today's reliance on multiple tools to get a deal done seems to only create friction--eliminate where you can. Also, engage with a company like HIVE Analytics for unbiased analysis of all things leads. It may hurt some leader's feelings but in the end the data doesn't lie.
Ron Morrison
10mo
We’ve seen many DOZENS of dealerships follow this advice, only to come back to Pureinfluencer and have us put our conversion tool back on. (Happy to have you talk with a few). The reason is that we (consultants/marketing experts) apply our “bias” to the user’s experience as if every user on a website is at the same stage of the buying cycle, or not considering competing dealerships. When metrics and factual data points aren’t used, dealerships can get misled by biases and opinions… ultimately hurting BDC Agents, Salespeople, the dealerships and even their customers. Clean and less cluttered websites are a good idea. Nothing wrong with that at all. So are intelligent sales and incentive tactics that help dealers capitalize on many opportunities. And yes, not all leads are alike… for instance leads from paid search strategies have historically (and currently) proven to be among the worst leads in terms of close rates per lead/cost/time… with volumes of supportive data to prove it.
Dan Hartnett
10mo
Site form conversion rates are 2%, focus on what you have, and understand the vast majority of people do not want to fill out a form. I don't fill out a form for anything, and from my conversations with my dealer partners, they don't either, so why is there a focus and belief that others outside of the auto industry will?
I pondered your post a little more Kyle. Here is what I am thinking. More leads, fewer sales? That’s not a paradox it’s really a systems failure. Most dealerships can’t tell you the difference between high-quality and low-quality leads in real time because they don’t own or structure their data well enough to make that distinction. The CRM was never designed to prioritize signal over noise. It treats every lead as equal, timestamped, and dumped into a queue. No context, no customer intelligence, no personalization. We’ve trained salespeople to chase volume instead of value. If you can’t rank your leads by buying intent, affordability, or lifecycle stage, then your team’s working blind. You’re overloading them with garbage while the real buyers get lost in the noise. It’s not about fewer leads it’s about fewer bad interactions and more intelligent follow-up. Until dealers fix their data layer and break free from legacy CRM workflows, this "lead paradox" will keep killing conversion rates. Want to sell more? Don’t just ask for better marketing. Ask for better data intelligence. IMHO on this beautiful Saturday morning in Florida 😃