Kelley Blue Book Offering Helps Dealers Attract, Engage Shoppers

Dealers looking to acquire more vehicles from consumers now have more reasons to leverage Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer. Already a part of 43% of all trade-in transactions in the U.S., according to Cox Automotive, Instant Cash Offer has three enhancements designed to help dealers engage consumers more effectively and acquire more trade-in vehicles. RE-ENGAGE enables dealers to stay connected to shoppers who haven’t yet transacted; Buying Signals Plus uses deep data to show when shoppers are getting ready to transact; and Service Drive Acquisition targets service customers who may be deciding between fixing a vehicle or trading it in.  

“Finding the right inventory is an ongoing challenge for dealerships, and we know that some of the most sought-after vehicles are the ones that come directly from the streets,” said Derek Hansen, vice president of operations for Inventory Management Solutions at Cox Automotive. “That’s why we’re looking forward to getting these new Instant Cast Offer capabilities into dealers’ hands and helping them acquire more of those vehicles, more easily and for the right price.” 

The newly added Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer features are as follows: 

RE-ENGAGE – Research shows consumers are taking longer than ever to go from finding out what their car is worth to completing a transaction. Cox Automotive has found that 89% of Instant Cash Offer transactions take place after the 7-day expiration date. Now with Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer RE-ENGAGE, dealers can easily identify consumers whose trade-in offers have expired and bring those offers back to life by automatically engaging with consumers through customized emails on a regular basis. 
 

Buying Signals Plus – As consumers shop online, they leave a digital trail with information about which cars they are looking for, budgets, purchasing timelines and more. Dealers can now use the new Buying Signals Plus feature, which aggregates and analyzes the data and signals when consumers may be ready to transact. With that information, dealers can take a more targeted approach to following up on leads. Kelley Blue Book data shows that Instant Cash Offer leads with Buying Signals Plus had a transaction completion rate nearly 19% better than leads without, whether the vehicle was sold through Instant Cash Offer or elsewhere. 

Service Drive Acquisition – The service lane presents a valuable opportunity to find quality pre-owned vehicles, as customers are deciding whether to repair their vehicles or trade them in. And since vehicles acquired directly from consumers have a lower cost-to-market compared to traditional methods, it makes sense for dealers to have a solid service-lane acquisition strategy. With Service Drive Acquisition, dealers have two ways to give customers a trusted offer: by sending an Instant Cash Offer invite ahead of the appointment or by creating and sharing an offer with a customer while in the service lane. And, if a dealer has ProfitTime GPS, they can more easily see which vehicles that are scheduled for service have the most profit potential thanks to a new integration.  

With these new features, dealers can not only tap into a larger pool of trade-in vehicles, but they can also use rich data and actionable insights to connect with more consumers more strategically and successfully source more inventory.