Auto Dealerships Lead All Other Industries in Effective Lead Follow-Up, Conversica Study Reveals
Annual Sales Effectiveness Report on Lead Follow-Up in the Automotive Industry also shows that there is room for improvement, as nearly 20 percent of dealers never responded to inquiries
FOSTER CITY, CA – April 13, 2017 – Conversica, the leader in artificial intelligence (AI) powered business conversations and the only provider of AI-based lead engagement software for automotive dealers, has announced new findings from its 2016 Sales Effectiveness Report on Lead Follow-Up in the Automotive Industry. The report determined that, while the automotive industry as a whole performed well compared to other industries, many automotive dealerships are not hitting best-practice targets, and a significant number failed to respond to incoming inquiries at all.
There is an abundance of research on the importance of what Conversica describes as the Four Ps—promptness, personalization, persistence and performance—of successful lead engagement. The goal of Conversica’s research was to determine the extent to which auto dealers are putting this information into practice.
The Auto Industry Scores High
The study, which involved “secret shoppers” reaching out to 59 companies in the automotive industry (and 538 companies total), revealed that there are many things the auto industry is getting right. Of the nine industries examined, automotive had by far the highest proportion of top-tier scores, with over one-third of respondents (38 percent) receiving an overall “A” grade. Of those dealerships that did respond:
- Nearly half (49 percent) responded within five minutes—the optimal window for qualification and conversion
- Only six percent took more than 24 hours to respond
- Twenty-five percent made eight or more attempts to reply to queries
Almost three quarters (74 percent) of dealerships that responded utilized all four key elements of personalization in their response: personalized greeting, specific mention of the lead’s inquiry, inclusion of specific contact information and time patterning (responses occurring at a time of day similar to the inquiry).
But Weaknesses Persist in Auto Sales Process
While the auto industry as a whole performed well compared to other industries, there was still plenty of room for improvement. One in five (19 percent) did not respond at all to a direct sales inquiry from their website, and 75 percent failed to make the eight or more attempts that research demonstrates are needed to engage an internet lead. Only two percent of dealers responded to queries with emails that were more than 90 percent likely to avoid spam filters.
Internet leads are an expensive resource, crucial to the success of automotive dealerships,” said Alex Terry, CEO of Conversica. “Our annual report offers a snapshot of how dealerships are handling leads today and how that behavior is changing over time. We compared real-world execution with best-practice research to help dealerships see where they’re performing well but also to pinpoint processes that need to improve.”
Report Availability
To obtain a copy of Conversica’s 2016 Sales Effectiveness Report on Lead Follow-Up in the Automotive Industry, visit www.conversica.com/auto-4ps-research-report. To request your company or dealership be included in a future report, as did more than 100 companies last year, visit www.conversica.com/4ps-assessment-request.
Survey Methodology
Commissioned researchers submitted inquiries on the websites of 538 companies from nine industries and measured the promptness, persistence, personality and performance of the responses. Companies were selected by compiling rankings from sources such as Forbes, Bloomberg and industry-specific publications. This research was conducted over a one-month period, using different secret shopper personas to solicit contact from the companies surveyed.
AI to Power the Future of Auto Sales and Service
A leading provider to more than 800 auto dealers around the world, including large dealership groups such as Boch Automotive Group and the Faulkner Organization, Conversica provides a cloud-based artificial intelligence service that presents itself as a Sales or Service Assistant. This assistant reaches out to internet sales and service leads and engages each of them in a human-like conversation.
With a response rate often three to five times higher than marketing or sales emails, Conversica’s assistants significantly increase the number of quality conversations with potential and future customers and reduce the time salespeople, BDC reps and service advisors spend chasing leads. From more conversations come more showroom and service drive visits and, as a result, more dealership revenue.
About Conversica
Conversica is the leader in AI-powered business conversations and the only provider of AI-driven lead engagement software for marketing and sales organizations. The flagship Conversica® AI Sales Assistant helps companies find and secure customers more quickly and efficiently by automatically contacting, engaging, qualifying and following up with leads via natural, two-way email conversations. Conversica is used by more than 17,000 salespeople worldwide to optimize sales team productivity. Recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor, Conversica is a portfolio company of Providence Strategic Growth, Kennet Partners and Toba Capital and is headquartered in Foster City, Calif.
To learn more, visit conversica.com and follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Contact:
Sara Black
Bospar
sara@bospar.com
213-618-1501
All Press Releases
- Momentum Continues for Leading Conversational AI Company Conversica With AI Awards From Aragon Research and Awards.ai
- Conversational AI Leader Conversica Unveils AI Customer Success Assistant
- Rashmi Vittal Joins Conversica as Chief Marketing Officer
- Conversica Ranked One of the Fastest-Growing Companies in North America on Deloitte’s 2018 Technology Fast 500
- Conversica Raises $31 Million in Series C Funding to Fuel Expansion of Conversational AI for Business
- Conversica’s Market Momentum Continues in 2018 with Rapid Growth, New AI Capabilities and Series C Funding Round
- Conversica Chief Scientist to Speak on Deep Reinforcement Learning at the O’Reilly Artificial Intelligence Conference in London
- Conversica Announces the Winners of Its Inaugural Lead Provider Awards for the Automotive Industry
- Conversica Launches Industry’s First AI-Powered Admissions Assistant for Higher Education
- Conversica Reveals Dreamforce AI Attitudes
- Conversica Continues Winning Streak With AIconics Award Win
- Conversica Announces Inaugural Lead Provider Awards for the Automotive Industry
- Conversica Wins Digiday Technology Award for Best Sales Automation Platform
- Conversica’s Alex Terry Named a Top 50 SaaS CEO of 2018
- Conversica Chief Scientist to Share AI Insights at VentureBeat Transform and the Global Big Data Conference
- Conversica Continues to Move Up Inc. Magazine’s List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies — the Inc. 5000
- Conversica Honors Alan Turing, Father of Artificial Intelligence, on ‘AI Day’
- Conversica Strengthens Executive Bench With Addition of Gregg Ames as Chief Sales Officer
- New Conversica Research Reveals Higher Education Institutions Need to Improve Follow-Up With Prospective Students
- New PCG Research on the Automotive Industry Finds That Conversica’s AI Solutions Are ‘Bursting With Exponential Opportunity for Dealers’
- Conversica to Showcase How Conversational AI is Automating Lead Follow-Up at the Marketo Summit Next Week
- Conversica Names Bevi the Winner of the 2018 AI Assistant of the Year Contest
- Conversica Partners With Microsoft to Bring Conversational AI to Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Conversica Wins 2018 Awards for Applying Conversational AI to Automotive Customer Acquisition and Retention
- Conversica Will Demonstrate at 2018 NADA Show How Conversational AI Boosts Showroom Visits and Customer Retention
- Conversica to Reveal How Artificial Intelligence Can Convert More Leads into Sales Opportunities at the LeadsCon Performance Marketing Conference
- Renowned Artificial Intelligence Expert Dr. Sid J. Reddy to Share Research and Insights at AVIOS Conversational Interaction Conference
- Conversational AI Leader Conversica Acquires Intelligens.ai, Accelerating Growth and Technology Leadership
- Conversica Named to CB Insights 2018 ‘AI 100’
- Conversica Voted Best Salesforce App at Dreamforce 17
- Conversica to Demonstrate Advances in Conversational AI for Business at Dreamforce 2017
- Conversica Chief Scientist to Share Insights on Artificial Intelligence at Venture Beat Summit and AI Expo
- Conversica Named to San Francisco Business Times ‘Fast 100’ List of Bay Area’s 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies
- Conversica, an Oracle Partner, Now Deeply Integrated with Oracle’s Customer Experience Suite
- Conversica Powers Superhuman Lead Follow-Up at INBOUND 2017 This Week
- Conversica CEO to Share Insights on Artificial Intelligence and Conversational Commerce at Opus Research Intelligent Assistants Conference
- Conversica Delivers Record Growth and Innovation as the Leader in Conversational AI for Business
- Conversica Appoints Dr. Sid J. Reddy as Chief Scientist to Innovate and Scale Conversational AI Platform as Company Accelerates Growth
- Conversica Names Brian Kaminski Chief Customer Officer to Accelerate Value for Customers in the Midst of Dramatic Company Growth
- Conversica Appoints Victor Belfor Senior Vice President of Business Development to Accelerate Strategic Partnerships
- Conversica to Reveal How Artificial Intelligence Can Convert More Leads into Sales Opportunities at the LeadsCon Connect to Convert Conference
- Conversica Named a Red Herring Top 100 Winner
- Conversica to Showcase at SiriusDecisions Conference How Utilizing Artificial Intelligence-Based Assistants Boosts Sales Pipeline and Marketing ROI
- Conversica to Present and Showcase Latest Artificial Intelligence-Based Sales Technology at Sales 3.0 Conference in San Francisco
- Americans Say Artificial Intelligence Will Increase Productivity, Free Up Spare Time and Ease Strain of Repetitive Tasks
- Conversica and Leading Customers to Reveal How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Lead Engagement and Conversion at Marketo Marketing Nation Summit
- Conversica to Exhibit and Speak at AA-ISP Leadership Summit 2017
- Auto Dealerships Lead All Other Industries in Effective Lead Follow-Up, Conversica Study Reveals
- Conversica to Showcase How Artificial Intelligence Is Used to Convert More Leads Into Customers at LeadsCon Las Vegas
- Conversica Customer and AI Champion at Talend to Present at B2B Content2Conversion Conference
- Conversica Recognized for Providing Best AI in the Enterprise
- Conversica Delivers Major Upgrades to AI-powered Business Conversations
- Conversica Wins 2017 Distinguished Marketing Award for Applying AI to Automotive Dealership Fixed Operations
- Auto Dealers Celebrate AI-Powered Internet Lead Engagement with Conversica, after Nearly 100 Years of Doing It the Hard Way
- Artificial Intelligence Innovator Conversica Raises $34 Million in Oversubscribed Series B
- Two-Thirds of Companies Fail to Effectively Follow Up on Inbound Sales Leads, New Research Reveals
- Conversica Powers Superhuman Lead Engagement at SiriusDecisions Technology Exchange This Week
- Conversica to Debut AI Service Assistant at Automotive Fixed Ops Conference
- Conversica to Debut Latest AI-Powered Sales Assistant at Dreamforce
- Conversica to Exhibit and Present at Insurance Disrupted 2016 Conference on Innovative Technologies
- Conversica to Exhibit and Present at LeadsCon, the Definitive Conference for Performance Marketers
- Conversica to Exhibit and Present at Digital Dealer 21 Conference & Exposition
- Conversica to Showcase Newest AI Sales Technology at Sales 2.0 Conference
- Conversica Recognized for Technology Leadership in Service Marketing
- Conversica’s AI-Powered Sales Assistant Bears Fruit at Sales Machine Summit 2016
- Conversica’s AI-Powered Sales Assistant to Make Personal Appearance at CRM Evolution
- Conversica’s AI-Powered Sales Assistant Visits the Sirius Decisions Summit This Week
- Conversica’s AI-Powered Sales Assistant is Appearing Again at the Marketo Marketing Nation Summit
- Research Finds Automotive Industry on Top in Lead Follow-Up Across Nine Industries
- Conversica Named a “Cool Vendor” by Gartner
- Conversica to Exhibit and Speak at AA-ISP Leadership Summit 2016
- Conversica Wins 2016 Automotive Website Award (AWA) for Sales Process
- Conversica Launches new AI-based Assistant for Automotive Service Departments
- Conversica’s Artificial Intelligence to Appear at NADA 2016 in Las Vegas
- Conversica’s AI-Powered Sales Assistant Will Be Engaging Leads at LeadsCon Las Vegas
- Conversica to Exhibit and Speak at CBT Automotive Conference & Exposition
- Survey Finds Extremely Poor Sales Lead Follow Up Across Nine Industries
- PCG Research Finds 200% Increase in Email Open Rates for Auto Dealers Using Conversica Lead Engagement Software
- Conversica to Exhibit and Speak at Digital Dealer 20 Conference & Exposition
- Conversica Ends a Record Year of Customer and Company Growth and Notable Industry Recognition
- Conversica Partners With Velocify to Help Customers Quickly and Effectively Engage Leads and Boost Conversion
- Conversica Announces Automotive Industry Advisory Board
- Conversica to Showcase Unique Automotive Lead Engagement at Digital Dealer19 Conference
- Study Finds Sales and Marketing Wasting 50% of Time and Money on Leads
- Conversica to Showcase Best Practices for Alignment of Sales and Marketing at Dreamforce
- Conversica AI to Make Personal Appearance at LeadsCon New York
- Conversica Names SaaS Veteran Jason Lund as New CFO
- Conversica Named 2015 CRM Market Rising Star by CRM Magazine
- Conversica Names SaaS Industry Veteran Alex Terry as New CEO
- Conversica Named Most Innovative and Overall Winner of 2015 NextGen Relationship Intelligence Award
- Conversica’s AI to make personal appearance at Salesforce World Tour in New York City
- Conversica Recommends Tips to Increase Inside Sales Effectiveness
- Ticketmaster Engineering Executive Joins Conversica to Grow Technology Team and Further Drive Innovation
- Conversica Announces Marketo Partnership and Integration
- Conversica Announces Major Sponsorship of AA-ISP to Help Advance the Profession of Inside Sales
- Former Serena Software Executive Carl Landers Joins Conversica as Chief Marketing Officer
- Conversica to Demonstrate Award-Winning Technology for Intelligent Lead Qualification at LeadsCon 2015
- Conversica Wins Most Innovative Company Award from LeadsCouncil
- Conversica Demonstrates Artificial Intelligence for Sales at SaaStr Escape Velocity Conference
- Conversica to Demonstrate Leading Auto Industry Lead Conversion Software at NADA 2015
- QuoteWizard Increases Engagement Rates to 40 Percent and Improves Lead Quality with Conversica
- Vern Fonk Closes 33 Percent of Internet Leads with Conversica
- Spring Venture Group Decreases Cost Per Lead Acquisition by 30 Percent with Conversica
- The Faulkner Organization Increases Qualified Showroom Traffic by 50 percent with Conversica
- Lead Conversion Landmines and How to Avoid Them
- Former DocuSign Executive joins Conversica as Vice President of Business Development
- Conversica Publishes Infographic on Bridging the Divide Between Marketing and Sales
- Conversica Launches Crush Your Quarter Promotion
- Conversica Now Available for the Salesforce1 Mobile App – Empowering Companies to Run Their Business from Their Phones
- Artificial Intelligence Technology is Changing How Marketing and Sales Organizations Interact with Leads
- Conversica Adds Two SaaS Industry Veterans to Board of Directors
- Sales Veteran Mike Grossman Joins Conversica as VP of Sales, Enterprise
- Home Rental Company Nets US$1.5 Million Annual Revenue Increase After Using Conversica for Three Months
- Conversica Completes Major Rebranding Effort in Less Than Two Months For Less Than US$100,000
- AVA.ai Announces Name Change to Conversica
- Why You Should Stop Using Autoresponders : A Better Solution Exists
- Marketing Veteran Michael E. Donner Joins AVA.ai (now Conversica) as SVP, CMO
- QuoteWizard & AVA.ai (now Conversica) Unveil Automated Virtual Assistant for Insurance Agents
- Kennet Partners announces US$16 Million investment in AVA.ai (now Conversica) and names Mark A. Bradley as CEO
- AVA (now Conversica) from AVA.ai Wins 2013 PCG Spotlight Award