Your Website Is a Leaky Bucket: Fixing Dealership Website Lead Generation

• Mike Crothers compares a dealer website to a leaky bucket: shoppers come in, look around, and leave without giving you a way to follow up.

• The shoppers who leak out of your site do not stop shopping. They go to your competitor's website.

• The leak is a capture problem, not a traffic problem, so buying more traffic does not fix it.

• Answering the trade-in question on your site gives shoppers a reason to raise their hand instead of leaving.

• MOTO(convert) adds instant valuations, firm offer requests, monthly value tracking, and the free buying power tool to your website.

Mike Crothers holds up a bucket and asks what it is. A leaky bucket? No. It is your website. Your customers are leaving, and they are going to your competitor's website. That is the core problem with dealership website lead generation: the shoppers show up, but you are not holding on to them.

Your website is a leaky bucket

You already pay to fill the bucket. Ads, search, third-party listings, and word of mouth all send people to your homepage and VDPs. Every one of those visitors is at least thinking about a vehicle.

When they leave without raising their hand, you do not get a second shot. The next store does. Mike's point is blunt: pouring more water into a bucket with holes in it does not fix the bucket. You have to fix the leak.

That is a different way of looking at the problem than most stores use. When leads are down, the first instinct is to spend more on traffic. But if the site is not capturing the people already on it, more traffic just means more people leaking out to the store down the road.

Why don't dealer websites convert?

Most dealer websites are built to show inventory. That is useful, but browsing inventory does not ask the shopper for anything. They can look at every unit on your lot, compare prices, and leave without a name, a phone number, or an email.

Here are the leaks a used car manager or GM will recognize:

• No real reason to engage. "Contact us" and "check availability" are asks, not offers. The shopper gets nothing back for filling out the form.

• The trade question goes unanswered. A lot of shoppers want to know what their current vehicle is worth before they talk to anyone. If your site cannot tell them, they will find a site that can.

• Nothing brings them back. Once the shopper closes the tab, there is no reason for them to think about your store again.

The trade piece matters more than most stores give it credit for. Shoppers often cannot settle on a vehicle or a payment until they know their equity. If your competitor's website answers that question and yours does not, you just handed them the deal.

How to fix dealership website lead generation

Fixing the leaky bucket means giving shoppers something worth trading their contact information for, right where they are already looking. In plain dealer terms: answer the question they came with. If you want to get more leads from your dealer website, this is where to start.

1. Put a trade-in tool where shoppers will see it. Not buried in a menu. Front and center, where someone thinking about a trade will find it.

2. Give value right away. An instant valuation gives the shopper an answer in the moment, which is the reason they stay instead of leaving.

3. Offer a path to a firm offer. Some shoppers are ready to sell. Let them request a firm offer without having to call the store first.

4. Keep the conversation going. Monthly value updates give the shopper a reason to come back to you instead of starting over somewhere else.

5. Help them understand their buying power. Shoppers who know what they can afford are easier to move toward a vehicle.

Each of those steps turns an anonymous browser into a lead your team can work. And the trades that come with those leads are used inventory you are acquiring straight from a consumer. That is how you improve your dealer website conversion rate without just buying more clicks.

Where MOTO(convert) fits

MOTO(convert) is the MOTO(acquire) website trade tool built for this exact problem. It gives shoppers instant valuations, lets them request a firm offer, and sends monthly value tracking so the conversation does not end when they leave your site. It also includes the free buying power tool.

Hundreds of dealers use MOTO(acquire) to acquire used vehicles from their own customers and website visitors. If you want to dig deeper into why dealer websites do not convert and what stores are doing about it, browse the Dealer Website Conversion topic page.

As Mike puts it: if you want to capture more of the people who are going to your website and fix the leaky bucket problem, start with the leak.