Cobalt Newsroom - In the News

Dealix offers Quality Pledge™ on its Leads


October 2009

Last month, Dealix, a division of Cobalt and the leading provider of automotive customer leads for new and used cars, today became the first automotive marketing company to back every one of its new and used car sales leads with a quality pledge. With the new Quality Pledge™ with Hassle Free Lead Return,™ Dealix will only charge its customers for leads that meet a specific set of criteria for leads that can turn into sales.

"The Dealix program is unique in the market," said Kim Clouse, CEO of I Auto Consultants, an automotive training and consulting firm. "The program is dealer-focused and quality-driven, which should enable Dealix customers to have greater confidence in their lead supply. That, coupled with the time factor saved, will allow dealership staff to focus more on their sales process, which will create more sales and increase return on investment."

With Hassle Free Lead Return, dealers are encouraged to identify and return any lead that fails one of the Quality Pledge criteria within seven days of receiving the lead. Dealix provides all customers with access to its Dealix Dealer Extranet through which they can identify a lead for return and specify the reason for the return. Dealix's Lead Quality Team then follows up with the lead returned, personally contacting the consumer to validate information and confirm whether they are actively in the market for a vehicle.

The return confirmation process takes three business days. If the Dealix Quality Team confirms that the lead does not conform to its Quality Pledge standards, the return is accepted and the charge is immediately removed from the dealer's invoice.

"The goal of the Quality Pledge is to align Dealix directly with our dealer customers and their goals," said Anna Zornosa, general manager of Dealix and executive vice president of Cobalt. "Dealix leads the industry in technology and supply investment, but it's still hard to guarantee that every lead will be good 100% of the time. With this new program, we are the only marketing company in the auto industry who is saying to dealers, "In the event you get a lead that does not represent a real opportunity, return it to us hassle free, and we will not charge for the lead."

Other benefits of Dealix's Quality Pledge include:

  • Enabling dealers to optimize sales every month. By encouraging them to quickly identify and return leads that can't be sold, Dealix creates an opportunity for the dealer to receive more good leads immediately so they can hit monthly sales goals.
  • Encouraging dealers to contact their leads quickly. The seven-day lead return window motivates dealers to contact each lead promptly, preferably upon receipt. Research repeatedly shows that dealers who launch a fast response upon receiving a lead have a much higher rate of selling a car to that consumer.
  • Allowing dealers to understand whether less than expected sales results are attributable to poor lead quality or a flawed sales process, as 100% of leads returned undergo follow-up verification by the Dealix Quality Team.
  • Giving Dealix valuable information on lead supply quality in order to provide dealers with superior products.

"We became a pilot dealer for the Quality Pledge because we like the goals of the program: to help us get more good leads each month," said Merick Sherline, fleet and Internet director for Stokes Brown Toyota in Beaufort, South Carolina. "So far we have found the program to be straightforward and useable. We've gotten a speedy response about the status of the leads we've submitted, with about half of them being accepted as valid returns. I'm optimistic this program will help us turn more leads into sales."

The Dealix Quality Pledge defines the characteristics of a valid lead as one that:

  • Has a working phone number for the person who submitted the lead.
  • Represents an active, in-market consumer.
  • Originates from an adult who is 18 years of age or older.
  • Is not a duplicate of a lead provided by Dealix in the last 30 days.
  • Is not a duplicate of a lead previously delivered by a source other than Dealix in the last 30 days.

"Dealix can offer this Quality Pledge because we have the strongest lead supply network in the market, comprised of the top auto sites, and the most powerful lead sourcing, verification, and delivery technology. This, combined with our decade of experience delivering over 300,000 new and used car sales leads monthly to dealers and OEMs, gives us total confidence in the value our products bring to dealers," continued Zornosa.

The Dealix Quality Pledge with Hassle Free Lead Return is available now. For more information, visit www.Dealix.com or call (800) 903-1965.

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