Following on from my earlier article, ‘The Rise and Fall of Used Car Sales’ , I’ve been doing a little digging while on my business trip to America.
You may remember, I questioned the difference in the conversion rates sales executives were seeing in America compared with the UK. American trade articles and websites were telling me that 50%-60% of customer enquiries are buying, continuing to be the norm, and everything was rolling along GREAT.
To see for myself, if it really was that much better than the UK – where 20%-25% is the accepted norm – I tried a little experiment.
The mystery shop.
To call it a mystery shop would be misleading. I was actually looking to buy an SUV, I just visited a lot more dealerships than I would normally.
Out of all of them, only 12.5% actually asked me for my contact details. That’s one in 8.
Now the US advertised conversion rate percentage makes sense. If a sales exec is only going to record the name of a customer if they are waving a credit card under their nose, then a 50%-60% conversion makes sense.
But what about all those ‘potential’ customers? ‘Me’ for example. I’m still sat here looking to buy a mid-range SUV, and the phone has only rang once.
The only dealership to ask for my contact number and email address AND actually send me something immediately and follow that up by telephone 24hrs later was the Kia Dealership in St Petersburg.
I will say, all of the staff, in all of the dealerships – with the noticeable exception of BMW – were very polite and professional. They provided all of the information I needed and it was a pleasurable experience.
But I have no idea why the other, 7/8, dealerships didn’t ask for my number allowing them to call me.
Maybe its fear around GDPR and data protection in America. But as I had walked into the showroom, sat in their cars and said ‘I WANT TO BUY A CAR’, I think that covers future contact under legitimate interest.
So it looks like the USA or rather 87.5% of US car dealerships, actually have a 20% conversion rate. They just, collectively, dropped the ball by not asking all of the customers that walk through the door for their telephone numbers.
I was surprised. Disappointed. But surprised for sure.