​In the latest version of AutoPlayAuto.com you can now click on the Phone or Mobile number field to automatically make a phone call on any compatible device.  If the field is editable there will be a green 'CALL' button.  If the field is not editable simply click on the Phone number to prompt the call.

After clicking on the phone number or the CALL button your call will be logged in the Sales Pipeline in 3 places.
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• in the Lead Audit screen (must have Audit role enabled)
• in the Lead History popup
• in the Communications section on your lead under 'Phone Calls' on both the Lead and Customer screens

The Lead Progress will also be automatically updated to 'Phone Call Made' (if Progress is past 'Phone Call Made' it will date stamp the appropriate Progress step but will not update the leads current progress).  Note - this only works with the standardised list of Lead Progress steps.
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At this stage AutoPlay cannot record and capture phone conversations directly via the AutoPlayAuto.com application.

With approx 80% of all leads not converting to Sold, it's important that you have a plan to re-target these potential customers.  For many dealers, just keeping up with incoming leads can occupy all their focus, let alone managing a targeted communications plan for "lost leads".

AutoPlay Live Leads are a fantastic way of re-targeting a specific audience amongst your lost leads, and now AutoPlay can offer our NZ customers a new Managed Live Leads Service.  From just $250 NZD per month, per location AutoPlay will provide the following;

• AutoPlay will build 2 x Live Leads eDM's sent per month
• AutoPlay will build a targeted audience from among your Overdue/Stalled Leads or Closed Lost Leads
• AutoPlay can select 9-12 vehicles to send out on your Live Leads eDM
• AutoPlay will schedule, script and manage audio recordings for each of your listings ($5 per recording)
• AutoPlay will automatically schedule follow up calendar events against leads that view one of your videos at least 3x
• AutoPlay will provide a report of the Live Leads eDM views and email open rates
• Minimum sign up term is just 3 months - if you don't see results in this period you are free to cancel your Managed Live Leads Service
• Offer only available to current Sales Pipeline customers in NZ

If you are interested in signing up to AutoPlays Managed Live Leads Services contact sales@autoplay.co.nz

PERSONALISED VIDEO
Create personalised video emails to reply to customer emails – building rapport and increasing call back by up to 60%. 

TRACK EMAIL VIDEO VIEWS
​Track your eDM and Email Response open rates and video views – giving salespeople another indicator of interest levels.

IMPROVE CONSISTENCY
Provide your customers with consistent branding via standardised email templates, and templated standard responses. 

RE-MARKET WITH LIVE LEADS
Take a targeted approach by building a contact list from your captured enquiry based on specific lead criteria. 

STREAMLINE FOLLOW UP
​Create a threshold for 'active’ leads and automatically follow up by creating scheduled calendar events

REQUALIFY WARM LEADS
​Take advantage of leads you have already captured to re-qualify potential sales for no additional marketing spend. 

In July we saw the volume of leads captured in NZ decrease by 3.2% from June 2019.  In August the number of leads rebounded to increase by 2.6% from month-to-month.  Unfortunately, the increases did not continue across the other KPI’s we track with Test Drives decreasing by 0.3% and Sales decreasing by 10.2% from July to August 2019.

‘Web – Classified’ was again the most common source of Leads – increasing by 4.7% from July to August.  ‘Web – Dealer’ remained the second most popular source of Leads in NZ but decreased by 3.4%.  After a drop of almost 70% from June to July due to the end of Fieldays, the Brand source rebounded to increase by 9.9% in August.

In August ‘Web Classified’ was the most common source of Test Drives and increased by 5.1%.  Test Drives arising from ‘Web – Dealer’ leads decreased by 11.5% and Test Drives from ‘Direct’ leads decreased by 4.3% from July to August.

​After a strong Sales month according to AutoPlay stats for the month of July, August Sales were slightly down with Sales from ‘Web – Classified’ leads down 4.2%, ‘Web – Dealer’ down 6.8% and Sales from ‘Repeat’ sources down 1.2% from July to August 2019.

Make sure to check back next month to see the top Sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales in October 2019.  

​May 2019 saw increases of more than 8% in the number of Leads, Test Drives and Sales from the previous month.  In June 2019 we saw a slight increase in leads of 3.3%, but Test Drives decreased by 10% from May 2019 to June 2019, and Sales decreased by 15.7% from month to month.

The top 3 sources of leads remain unchanged with ‘Web – Classified’ continuing to be the most common source of leads for NZ Dealers despite decreasing by 1.3% from May to June 2019.  With Fieldays in June, ‘Brand’ supplied leads jumped a spot to be the second largest supplier of leads in NZ – on the back of a 29.6% increase the previous month, leads from the ‘Brand’ source increased a further 15% in June.  ‘Web – Dealer’ rounded out the top 3 despite a 6.6% decrease.

Test Drives decreased across the board as we were yet to witness the conversion of Leads to Test Drives within June from the Fieldays event.  Typically, we would expect to see an increase in Test Drives in the months following Fieldays.  From May 2019 to June 2019 we saw a decrease of 24.7% in Test Drives from the ‘Web - Dealer’ source, a decrease of 2.4% from ‘Web – Classified’ and an increase of 3.3% in Test Drives generated from May to June 2019.

Sales dropped by 15% from May to June across kiwi AutoPlay users.  We saw this trend across all sources with ‘Web – Classified’ decreasing by 22.9%, ‘Web – Dealer’ decreased by 14.7% and Sales from the ‘Repeat’ Source decreased by 16.5%.

​Make sure to check back in August to see the top Sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales in July 2019.  

​After April was one of the worst performing months in recent memory, we experienced a bounce back in May 2019 with increases in the number of Leads, Test Drives and Sales recorded.  We saw Leads increase by 14.2%, Test Drives by 17.4% and 8.0% increase in Sales from April 2019 to May 2019.

The top 3 sources of leads remain unchanged with ‘Web – Classified’ bouncing back from an 11.7% decrease from March to April, with a 10% increase from April to May 2019.  Leads from the ‘Web – Dealer’ source increased by 6.7% and continued to be the second most common source of leads in May.  As brands geared up for Fieldays in NZ we saw a number of pre-qualified leads for the event get pushed through to dealers in advance of Fieldays.  This was reflected in an increase in leads from the ‘Brand’ source of 29.6% from April 2019 to May 2019.

Following the trend, we saw Test Drives increase by 17.4% April to May 2019.  The most common source of Test Drives was again ‘Web – Dealer’ leads which increased by 12.4% month to month.  After drops of more than 30% in April, Test Drives from ‘Web – Classified’ sources bounced up to second on the back of a 16.4% increase month to month.  ‘Direct’ Test Drives also increased, but by a smaller margin (6.8%) – resulting in this source slipping to occupy the 3rd spot in Test Drive tracking.

​As with Leads and Test Drives, we saw an increase in Sales.  This played out as an 12.9% increase in Sales attributed to ‘Web - Classified’ sources, 3.5% increase in Sales from dealer websites (‘Web – Dealer’) and 5.6% increase in Sales attributed to ‘Repeat’ lead sources.

​With Fieldays just completed in June, we expect to see a big increase in brand leads when we publish the June figures next month.  Make sure to check The PlayBook next month for the top sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales in June 2019.  

When is "lost" actually lost when it comes to sales leads?

This is a recurring question that every dealer must ask themselves.  Too cautious about closing your leads as lost and you run the risk of cluttering your dashboard with cold leads, and compromising your sales peoples efficiency in managing leads.  Too often we see dealers that don't want to close their leads as "lost", and these inevitably end up as Overdue or Stalled leads.

Conversely if you are to aggressive in qualifying your leads as lost then you might be burning your potential customers too soon.  It's not a good look when customers are still actively in the market and salespeople choose not to follow up with them due to a perception they won't result in a sale.

It's a delicate balance - something that dealers manage in different ways.  Some will use AutoPlays Role Management Settings to restrict who can mark a lead as lost in their dealership, whilst others will set the account up to allow anyone to close leads as lost, but notify managers when this happens.  

The important thing to remember is that closing a lead as 'lost' doesn't necessarily mean you should stop talking to these customers - it just changes the method of communication and clears up the dashboard in Sales Pipeline, allowing salespeople to focus on more active leads.  All 'Closed Lost' leads can still be filtered to, and reports such as the Closed Lost Reason Report allow you to identify these leads in bulk,  AutoPlay has built in tools such as Live Leads which let you target recently closed lost leads with bulk eDM's - allowing dealerships to re-qualify leads enmasse in a way that might be hard to achieve with individual personalised follow up.  Whatever your approach, there should at least be an approach as there's still juice to be squeezed from these leads - something Manukau Hyundai recently experienced first hand.

Recently Manukau Hyundai hired a new salesperson.  To get them started they decided they would allow the new salesperson to have a crack at leads that the dealership had previously closed as lost.

To do this the dealership ran a Closed Lost Report from 1st July 2018 to 31st March 2019.  By exporting this list of leads via the 'Export' function in reporting.autoplay.co.nz the dealership was able to come up with a list of potential leads for the new salesperson to follow up with.

The new salesperson set about managing these leads and in just a month had achieved 16 sales from the pool of leads the dealership had previously classified as 'Closed Lost'.   

There is nothing wrong with closing leads as lost!  However this story proves the value in following up Close Lost leads as there is potentially money to be made.  Whether you follow up individually like Manukau Hyundai did, or you target these leads with bulk eDM's or Live Leads - the important thing is to have awareness of these leads, and a dedicated process for your dealership to verify they are truly lost sales opportunities.

If you would like to talk to AutoPlay about how you can identify and re-target your Closed Lost leads contact support@autoplay.co.nz and one of our account managers will get in touch.

One of the key tools salespeople have to progress deals is the option to present potential customers with quotes.  Many dealerships handle this within their DMS, however there are some that will build these using the Write Up Form.  By customizing the print output the Write Up Form can be a suitable alternative used to present quotes to customers, with the real sale and purchase agreement done via the DMS.

We also have several dealerships that utilize pre-built "email modules" to quickly and easily add quotes to their AutoPlay Email Responses.  These can be used for fleet deals, or for normal sales leads.  AutoPlay Quote Builder Emails can be created from a listing or used within the Sales Pipeline to communicate with your customers.  "Modules" can be customized to suit your specific requirements (development work for any changes is quoted on a case by case basis).

The AutoPlay Quote Builder is available from $100 p.m +GST (quoted on a per case basis dependent upon complexity of template).  

If you have any questions about the Quote Builder contact sales@autoplay.co.nz

The AutoPlay Sales Pipeline is great for keeping track of what vehicles are being Test Driven at any one time.  This is not only great for keeping track of vehicle availability, but also ensures that any speeding or parking fines can be attributed to the customer who had the vehicle at the time.

However did you know that AutoPlay can also be used to keep track of your Service, Employee, Sponsorship, Client Supplier or Press loan vehicles?  Once enabled the Loan Vehicle Form is managed through the vehicle registry screen and costs just $100.00+GST per month, per location. 

It's that time of year again when we all resolve to lose weight/be kinder/spend less/eat better.  In the spirit of "new year, new you" here are 5 AutoPlay resolutions you can make to get the most out of the AutoPlay suite of products.

1.  I will respond to leads faster than ever before
I'm not going to define for you a suitable time to reply to customer enquiries as every dealer and region is different, with different expectations and different resources (though 2 hours could be used as a good benchmark).  Your first resolution is simply to work out firstly how long you are taking to reply to customer enquiries - check out the Email Reply & Allocation Report.  Once you know how long you are currently taking, knock 20% off and make this your new target.  It doesn't have to become part of your salesperson kpi's, but the addition of a documented goal to respond to all new leads will help all the salespeople understand the expectations on them.

2.  I will re-market to my existing leads...using the tools I already have available to me!
Many of our customers would have heard various members of the AutoPlay team bleating on and on about the fact that on average dealerships only convert 50% of their leads to Test Drives, and 20% to Sales.  We really hammer this point home because if you do the math it shows that 80% of the leads you've generated will not actually result in a sale.  Clearly this represents a huge opportunity for sales people to really work their lead database.  The Dashboard makes it super easy to identify the progress stage each lead is at, and built in tools such as Live Leads, In Market Leads and the Email Response Tool make it easy to target these customers for no additional spend.  Get someone responsible for sending Live Leads out each month and make the most out of every cent you spend.

3.  Personalise your customer comms
As detailed in make-2019-the-year-you-personalise-your-comms.html the internet continues to be an impersonal space, and building rapport with prospective customers is key to enage with them.  AutoPlay's suite of products offers ample opportunities to inject personality into the online space with Virtual Demo Videos and Video Email Response Tool.  Depending on your package these tools will not cost any additional and can be a great way to drive engagement with your dealership.

4.  Start using In Market Leads & Wishlists to connect your deals
The benefit of using digital tools to manage your leads is that everything gets captured.  The weakness of many digital lead capture systems is they don't help salespeople connect deals together.  At AutoPlay we've worked hard to provide tools that help sales people digest all the overwhelming volumes of information they have access to.  The Wishlist is used when your sales team cannot pin a customer down to a particular vehicle in stock.  It will automatically alert the salesperson when a matching vehicle comes into stock, or is appraised on another deal.  In Market Leads serves a similar purpose - when a new vehicle comes into stock or the price of an existing vehicles is dropped the system will look at all of the leads that have been captured (based on customisable criteria), and alert the manager to those customers that might be interested in the price dropped or new listing.  These tools are built into the standard Sales Pipeline so will not cost any additional money - use them!

5.  Understand Reporting
It's hard to make decisions if you don't understand what is happening - so understanding reporting is critical to your success with AutoPlay Sales Pipeline.  Reporting can be more than just tracking the past - it can also identify opportunities for the future and now.  If you know you convert 50% of your Test Drives to Sales via the Lead Conversion Report, and you know you've got 40 leads sitting at Test Drive Progress via the Sales Pipeline Report then it's easy to connect the dots and work out a plan to convert 20 of those leads into Test Drives.  AutoPlay has a wealth of reports from raw data extracts in the form of the Lead Audit, to the 15+ reports in reporting.autoplay.co.nz.  If you are a Sales Manager it's critically important that you understand what the reports are showing you.

If you want to talk to someone about any of these functions contact support@autoplay.co.nz and one of our Account Managers will get in touch.