I always view Latest LH posts, and (I imagine) the only thing worse than the same avatar replying 5 times in different threads with “I PMed you about X, Y, Z BMW” is when I see the same avatar replying 5 times in different threads asking for “the best deal” on 5 different makes/models.
6 Likes
Hi I’m interested in a 330i/X3/i4/GLC/GLA/Q5/Q7/G35/FX30/Impala/Tercel/Dodge Neon/Tundra/XC60/XC90/Altima/Maxima/Murano Cross Cabriolet.
Best price please and no I won’t be providing my zip code, miles per year, or any other pertinents, just best price on all thanks.
10 Likes
I think @Jrouleau426 would hate to do this.
There will always be tire kickers, but when I see threads with the detailed google sheets I don’t even have to waste a second of anyones time. I know right off the bat if the deal is something I want or not. The taxes or something that may swing the payments by a couple dollars isn’t the deal breaker. Every time I have done a LH deal it was through these sheets or a calc, and only reached out to the broker when it was “ok this deal works for me, what are next steps” and if there are options or colors I ask about those.
I wont throw shade at anyone but some of the forms I’ve filled out lately are laughable. It’s almost like there is no actual expectation for a deal, so now I gave you all my personal information for something that I would have never even bothered reaching out. And you had to type a reply, so you wasted more time. I can’t help but to think now my personal information is being traded/sold/etc to a lead list. It’s hard to black out completely in the 2023 world of connected things, but giving out too much detailed information for something that would have never progressed to a deal in the first place is a waste of everyones time.
I get why some people don’t want to do it, but some are getting paid and some are paying. If I have to do the same dance I would with a dealer, just to get an absurd number thrown in my face thats significantly higher than any other broker on LH only a week after giving away my personal information, why would I waste my time here. At least I get free coffee at the dealer.
There has to be a middle ground to weed out tire kickers on the broker side as well?
1 Like
Why is the broker doing all the work on behalf of the dealers?
I think the problem here is that you are the maybe 5% of customers here who use the resources, work their own deal, and then reach out when you’re ready.
95% of people do not do that, most people need more help, and that’s fine, but you are in an extreme minority.
I post build sheets on here and still get texts asking me what the color combo is. No I’m not joking, it’s happened multiple times.
Most people do not do what you are saying, so much so that I tend to reward people who do something like that with a small extra discount for making my life easy.
2 Likes
But even if we are the 5%, we are the ones closing the majority of deals, no?
I feel like it would be easier to just post sheets and no contact information until its “ok ready to make a deal”. Imagine you didn’t post build sheets how many more questions you would get?
Some threads don’t even have one sample deal. Just forms to give information. What exactly are they offering as a service? For example, someone can say “I sell BMW’s, reach out for information”. Got to give something more than that, no?
All the work in what sense? Isn’t the point of the broker fee to make the deals happen?
Not sure I understand your question.
1 Like
No, if I service, as an example, 50 customers in a month, maybe 2 of them will do that.
I am trying to be as transparent with you as possible.
1 Like
All the work in posting up calculator. Like @Jrouleau426 @iac, and @IAC_Scott, I know that they get at least 20+ texts per day. And maybe 1 would buy.
2 Likes
I appreciate the honest dialogue. I’m just looking for some dialogue on how we have a middle ground that works for everyone. The website has tended to shift alot more to some brokers who offer virtually 0 information besides forms to fill. That used to never happen. Pre Covid I personally don’t remember one broker who did that. Now there are several.
1 Like
How does a calculator link make someone respond to your inquiry?
1 Like
because 90% of the brokers on this site are glorified truecar lead generation services. the majority of people here don’t actually deliver any deals to their clientele. their business is a volume approach of throwing out as many lease calculators as possible and hoping people lock in deals. then they collect their fees and punt people over to their dealers, and they become the dealers’ problems.
5 Likes
So if they don’t post any information besides “send me your contact information”, would that mean that they have less conversations to have and more deals to make? Seems like it would be the opposite?
But do they though? Really? Does it really start from “send me your contacts?”
I don’t think the response time is the issue that was brought up.
If you post at least an example deal I don’t have to even bother wasting your time or mine if your looking for $5k down with $700 a month for a 22k MSRP Honda Civic. And at the same time, now I don’t have my full name, adress, email and phone number out there on the internet or being sold as a lead.
2 Likes
It’s not in the best interest of my customers to have set discounts. I go above and beyond my price sheets I post in the beginning of every month as things change. I also have different discounts based on options/colors etc as that’s just how the market works.
With any quote I have it’s base mf and I’m always willing to quote sales price and msrp. Anything else can be done with the customers due diligence on a calculator. They should learn how to use them anyway if they want to see if.
This conversation comes up all the time and the owners of the site leave it up to the brokers to advertise the way they see fit. Anyone misleading customers get called out pretty fast anyway.
My response time to customers is typically minutes and never days unless I miss their text which is very rare. Quote turn arounds are almost always same day usually within an hour. I just get too many individual quotes a day to include a calculator so I won’t do it but my customers can get all the pertinent info to fill that out themselves should they want to.
I also rarely know a customers name until they lock in the deal unless they tell me it in their first text to me. So I’m not mining any data and I don’t even follow up with people after a quote. If they want the car they will text me…The onky time I reach out is if they text and I don’t have that car and find it later.
3 Likes
Not to minimize your point about the deal but who is selling your info?
3 Likes
Maybe nobody, but I’ve seen the how valuable leads are in the sales industry and how people pay good money for them. When all our information is required, just to SEE what you have to offer, it seems a little off.
I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus so giving out details will make it obvious, but there was a thread at one point where they mentioned a brand with virtually no other information and all inquiries were directed to a form.
If you have 100 cars and don’t want to spend time putting together the calculator or share a sheet, at least give one example. If I see that were not even in the same stratosphere (we weren’t) I don’t waste your time and you dont waste mine and I also haven’t given all my personal information.
My question for some of the transparent brokers would be: What information are you looking at when people reach out to you and you quote them. I assume you have a spread sheet? I see some brokers literally post an image of that sheet, that definintely weeds out alot of tire kickers. So doesn’t necessarily have to be a calculator, but some information that shows some sort of the “deal” being offered should be required. Even if its not for everyone single one, but if you have 100 vehicles, a handful of examples shouldn’t be a problem.
1 Like