We all know that all dealerships are not created equal when it comes to helping consumers with subprime credit. Most dealers don’t have the lenders, inventory or knowledge to help these people.
We all know that every day, subprime consumers walk into the wrong dealership and are told they have bad credit and cannot be helped. Many of them are sure they will hear the same thing from every other dealer, so their search for a vehicle ends right there.
If you are a dealership with the right lenders, inventory and the ability to help subprime consumers, then there are programs for you to make the sale and send home a happy customer in a vehicle from your lot. With these programs, you will have the ability of knowing when every subprime consumer in your market has their credit pulled by a competitor, bank or lender for the purposes of automobile financing.
This is called a “trigger” program because once the consumer has their credit pulled, that creates a trigger notification that this consumer is in the market now. Every morning a fresh list of these shoppers becomes available.
This is one of the most targeted lists available and the response rates prove it. As most people know, you are lucky to get a 1 percent response from any traditional mail campaign. It’s common to see response rates from 4 to 9 percent response from a properly run trigger program.
Many of these consumers also have phone numbers that are not on the national “do not call” list. That means that either you or a professional call center you hire can contact these customers the day after they shopped, even before they receive a firm offer of credit in the mail. When they receive a call notifying them that they have been prequalified for automobile financing at a dealership near them, they will most likely think that you don’t know they were turned down somewhere else, and they will happily listen to your offer.
A properly run trigger lead program offers customers the car they want while giving them the confidence they need to come into your dealership.
Robb Azaren – Owner of Direct 2 Dealer Marketing LLC
