7 things the used car shopper wants to know
While looking wide-eyed over this week’s website stats, I came across a used car lead that I must share.
i indicated interest in your ( car) that was advertised on the net.Please i will want to know if it’s still availiable and if it is,Send me:
(i)The final/bottom price of the car .
(ii)Recent pictures of the car.
(iii)Why you are selling the car .
(iv)How long the car has been for sale.
(v)If the car has a clear title
(vi)The condition of the car .
(vii)Any other detail you may wish to give us.i”ll want to hear back from you as soon as possible
This single email represents the mindset of the majority of car shoppers online. I’m brainstorming how I can change the way I present classified ad listings to answer some of the questions on this list. How many of these items are presented on your advertisements?
First off, that email smells like a scammer to me. If they’re asking for things that are already available (such as photos) or ask generic things like the “condition” or “any other detail you wish to give us” I’d put money on it.
That’s all beside the point though. Let’s get to your original question. I’ve done a lot of experimenting, and I see two ways to go about classifieds. You can either hit a few “hot points” and have a short description or you can have a lengthy, all-inclusive description that answers anyones questions up front. I’ve found both to have pros and cons.
A short description will naturally leave out info that someone wants to know. When they contact you, that’s a lead for you to work.
A more descript ad can have all the info the customer is looking for, but in my experience they still ask the same questions, even if they could get their answer by reading the ad. Some people will read through all the info you provide, and as a result some of the people that ultimately aren’t interested won’t waste your time with calls/emails.
I guess what I’m getting at is that if I were writing the classifieds, I would keep them fairly brief with just a couple of hot points like “Well below book value, all service records available, just in on trade - won’t last long at this price” and then drive traffic to your entire inventory by adding something like “for more photos, info, and $500 off this vehicle visit our website at www.yoursite.com“.
Thanks for your input, Jake.
The lead is legit. Most of the crap that comes through my classifieds sites are the shipping company check fraud scams that are common to craigslist. Scammers are easy to spot from my point of view, though, because they never request information for just one vehicle.
I understand your point that generating the lead and getting that potential on the phone is sometimes more important than satisfying their need for information ASAP.
I’m not a dealer. My job is to market cars and generate leads for dealers. The adjustments to ads that I plan to make are not just a result of this single lead, but the summary of requests over all the leads that enter my database.
For example, I love the fourth question asked, how long has the car has been for sale? Autotrader has their “newly listed” badge now, but I’m taking it a step further with “originally listed” and “last modified” timestamps–how long has the car been for sale AND how fresh are the description and photos?
The sites I run also include private seller listings, where the length of sale is more important than for a dealer.
I guess what I’m tying to say is that while my job is to generate leads, it is also my responsibility to cut out the noise and “plz send pics” emails that probably won’t lead to sales.
I’m also working on the closing price requests. A large percentage of email leads ask for an out-the-door price. I know dealers hate this, especially the ones in Jeff’s comments this week http://www.dealerrefresh.com/my_weblog/2007/10/how-i-should-ap.html, but with the proper wording and the right attitude this is something that USED car dealers can take advantage of.
[…] a recent post, I discussed a vehicle lead that I thought was interesting. The question was raised that the lead […]