Research conducted by Marketing Delivery suggests that 64% of customers marked as ‘lost’ by dealership sales teams might still be awaiting contact.

The provider of e-CRM systems to UK motor retailers conducted an analysis to see what proportion of these ‘lost’ leads could be legitimately fed back into the sales channel, evaluating a sample of more than 63,000 new and used car sales enquiries from 70 dealerships across the UK.

The research – carried out in the second quarter (April to June) of 2016 – found that of the 41,000 of those enquiries logged as ‘lost’, an average of 40% said they were still ready and able to buy a car from the same dealership when contacted via email.

In many instances, the ‘lost’ customers surveyed by Marketing Delivery said they were still waiting to hear back from the dealership sales staff.

In the case of one dealership, the number of ‘lost’ leads that could be fed back into the sales database was as high as 45%.

Jeremy Evans, managing director at Marketing Delivery, said: “Dealerships are losing significant volumes of business as a result of deficiencies in the performance of sales staff or shortfalls in sales processes, or both.

“Our analysis found no discernible difference in terms of brand representation – those retailing prestige-brand vehicles suffer similar haemorrhaging of genuine leads as volume-brand franchises.

“It flags up the need for effective sales training to ensure more accurate qualifying and categorising of enquiries.

“Many of our clients also make good use of automated digital follow-ups, issued at specific points after the enquiry has been made, which capture and reintroduce into the sales process those leads erroneously identified as ‘lost’.”

For its analysis Marketing Delivery filtered out legitimate ‘lost’ leads, such as those prospects who were identified as being unable to purchase a car, for example as a result of failed finance.