When a sales lead comes to a dealership, what happens?

According to the latest study from sales intelligence software provider Foureyes, almost half the time it’s mishandled.

The company’s seventh annual Automotive Dealer Industry Benchmarks Report found 43.2% of sales leads were “mishandled” — a term Foureyes used to include missed calls, leads that didn’t get logged, lapsed follow-up and other issues — and 14.1% of those leads were never logged to dealer CRMs at all.

The report is based on analysis of more than 1.1 billion dealer website visits and 30 million pieces of inventory from more than 22,500 dealership websites during 2024.

One major issue, the report said, is follow-up. Among sales leads that returned to the website after already submitting a form, chat or website call, 65% did not hear back from the dealer within 24 hours of the return visit, and the majority (61.6%) were not contacted until eight or more days later.

The report found 60% of vehicle buyers purchased within the first three days of their initial inquiry, meaning a significant 40% of sales still closed after many dealerships stopped following up with leads.

“The numbers in this year’s report highlight an incredible sales opportunity that gets overlooked,” Foureyes CEO David Steinberg said. “That being the 40% of buyers who still purchase after day three in the sales cycle. It represents a substantial untapped market that dealers can access with the right approach to long-term lead nurturing.”

The study also explored inventory, noting new inventory at the end of 2024 had soared to its highest level since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in March 2020 while used supply sank to its lowest level since pre-pandemic 2019, creating the largest gap between them since 2021.

Even so, new-car prices remained stable, finishing the year at an average of $49,520, while used prices dropped steadily throughout 2024.

The full report is available for download here.