It’s Phone-Plus-IM, Not Phone-Versus-IM

With over a thousand auto dealers now using ContactAtOnce!, we’ve witnessed just about every emotion and reaction to IM. Once dealers try IM they are almost universally positive about it due to the ROI in terms of increased sales and increased productivity amongst sales personnel. But when dealers are first introduced to IM, some have negative reactions – at times due to a misconception about the role of IM as relates to the phone. Just this week I encountered such a dealer.

The BDC manager has been reasonably successful and has great phone skills. Rightly so he believes that phone leads are his best leads. Interestingly, he perceived that adding IM to his website would take away from his phone leads and thus reduce his effectiveness. In short, from his point of view it was “phone versus IM”. His was an emotional reaction, not based on data but based on his strong feelings about phone leads.

However, internet marketing is about cold hard facts and those facts show that adding IM to a website does not reduce the number of phone calls generated. In fact, in most cases it actually increases phone leads especially when a phone number is included on the dropin. More important is the fact that IM leads are incremental, above and beyond phone leads and email leads. In short – it isn’t “phone versus IM” – it is “phone plus IM” – and the dealerships that misunderstand this fact are in effect saying “we’re not interested in incremental leads”.