The Source

Every up sheet should have a source. This tells you how the lead originated, is helpful for reports, and provides background information on your customer.

E-leads will come in with their source named, which is great because then you know this customer is an internet shopper, and you hopefully have an email address to keep in touch with him/her. But, manually created up sheets need to be assigned a source. Was this a walk-in, referral, friend, previous customer, or did the customer come to you through an advertisement?

Having the source in all of your up sheets gives accurate reporting statistics that managers can use to see where money on advertising in best spent, but can also be helpful to a salesperson. Knowing where your most fruitful leads are coming from tells you where to use more energy when trying to close a sale.

Having the source in there is another way to filter your customers, too.

Using sources properly starts with the account administrator taking time to make sure the dealership’s AutoRaptor account has the sources that it needs and can use in the future. This step is critical early on to ensuring that sources get used properly. For example, just entering the source “referral” may not tell you much. Maybe you want a category called “referral” broken down into sources specifying from whom the referral came – customer, employee, family, friend, etc. Each dealership is different and can choose their sources based on their needs.

Do you have the sources you need in your AutoRaptor account? Are your salespeople assigning sources to all leads?