Let me start with something that might surprise you.
When I train dealerships on the 70/70/70/70 Rule, the first thing I tell them is this: the goal at every single stage is 100%. Not 70. Not 80. One hundred percent.
The reason I frame it that way is simple. If you set your contact rate goal at 70% and you hit 70%, you stop there. You are satisfied. You move on. But if you set the goal at 100% and you hit 70%, you are pleased with the result — and still hungry to close the gap. That mindset is what separates the dealers who consistently outperform their markets from the ones who run a campaign, shrug at the results, and blame the leads.
The 70/70/70/70 Rule does not describe what you should aim for. It describes what most dealers actually achieve — and more importantly, it shows you exactly where the opportunity is hiding.
Here is how it works.
—
Start With 100 Leads
You launch a subprime campaign. You receive 100 leads — verified, data-driven individuals who have demonstrated a credit trigger, a recent financial event, or an active signal that they are in the market and need financing help.
One hundred real people. One hundred real opportunities.
Now watch what happens at each stage.
—
Stage 1: Contact — You Reach 70
The first metric — and the one I consider the most critical — is your contact rate.
Of your 100 leads, most dealers will make meaningful contact with approximately 70.
But I want to be very clear about what “contact” means, because this is where I see dealers fool themselves constantly.
Contact is not leaving a voicemail. Contact is not sending an email. Contact is not firing off a text message. Contact means you had a real, two-way, back-and-forth conversation with that consumer. They spoke. You spoke. There was an exchange. Anything short of that is an attempt — not a contact.
When you redefine contact that way, a lot of dealerships discover their actual contact rate is far lower than they thought. They were counting voicemails as contacts. They were counting emails as contacts. They were patting themselves on the back for reaching people they had never actually reached.
Now, I also want to address the phone number issue directly, because it comes up constantly in subprime conversations.
Yes, bad phone numbers are a real problem in the subprime space generally. But with our EasyDrive Card leads, that concern is largely eliminated — and here is why.
When a consumer calls our toll-free number, we capture their caller ID. When a consumer visits EasyDriveCard.com, they enter their own phone number. In both cases, that consumer is reaching out to us. They are actively looking for help. They have a genuine need. There is no reason for them to provide a wrong number — in fact, doing so works directly against their own interest. The vast majority of the numbers we deliver are working numbers attached to motivated people.
That distinction matters. These are not cold prospects pulled from a rented list. These are individuals who raised their hand and said, “I need a car and I need help getting financed.” The contact opportunity is real. Whether your BDC capitalizes on it is a process question, not a data quality question.
So when your contact rate is 70% instead of 100%, look inward before you look at the list.
—
Stage 2: Appointments — 49 Commit to Coming In
Of the 70 you reach, approximately 70% will set an appointment — 49 people who agree to come in.
Here is the principle I hammer into every BDC I train: your only job on that first call is to sell the appointment. Not the vehicle. Not the financing. The appointment.
That sounds straightforward, but it runs directly against the instincts of most salespeople, who want to prequalify the prospect before they invest time in the visit. I understand the instinct. I also know it kills appointments.
Do not ask them about their credit score on the phone. Do not ask how much money they have for a down payment. Do not start structuring a deal before they are sitting across from you. The moment you start down that road, you introduce doubt, embarrassment, and resistance — and the appointment evaporates.
Get them into the store. That is where you have the tools to work the deal. That is where you can have a real conversation about a co-signer. That is where you can discuss a down payment in the context of a specific vehicle they can see and touch. That conversation is nearly impossible to have effectively over the phone, and attempting it costs you appointments you would otherwise win.
The dealers I have seen consistently hit appointment rates above 70% are the ones who train their BDCs on one thing: every call ends with a confirmed date and time, or a clear next step to get there. Everything else is secondary.
—
Stage 3: Show Rate — 34 Actually Walk In
Of your 49 appointments, approximately 34 will show — and this is the stage that generates the most frustration and the most misdirected blame.
Here is what I have learned after 35 years: a well-set appointment shows up. No-shows are not random bad luck. In most cases, they are a symptom of an appointment that was not set properly in the first place.
When a BDC rep rushes through the call, does not build rapport, does not understand the prospect’s motivation, and does not address the underlying fear of rejection — the appointment is fragile from the moment it is booked. That prospect has every reason to avoid the discomfort of walking into a dealership, sitting down with a stranger, and risking hearing the word “no.” If your team did not remove that fear on the call, the no-show was almost inevitable.
That said, life happens. Subprime buyers are often dealing with real instability — job changes, transportation problems, family disruptions that make Thursday’s appointment impossible by Wednesday evening. A structured confirmation process — a text the day before, a call the morning of — does not eliminate no-shows, but it catches many of the preventable ones early enough to reschedule.
The question to ask after every no-show is not “why didn’t they come in?” It is “did we earn their confidence enough to make them want to?”
—
Stage 4: Close Rate — 24 Sales
Of the 34 who walk in, 24 will buy — provided your process is sound.
That is a strong close rate, and it reflects something I have always believed about subprime buyers: when they make it through your door, they are motivated. They have overcome real psychological and logistical barriers to be standing in your showroom. They want a vehicle. They need a vehicle. Your job at this point is not to manufacture urgency — it already exists.
Where deals get lost at this stage is almost always process-related. Lender submissions that go to the wrong source first. F&I presentations that lead with payment before the customer has emotionally committed to a vehicle. Inventory that does not align with what your lender partners will approve at a realistic price point. Sales consultants who grow impatient with deals that take longer to structure.
Subprime requires a different kind of discipline in the box. The dealers who close 24 out of 34 have invested in their F&I process, their lender relationships, and their inventory strategy. They have done the work before the customer ever walks in — and it shows.
—
The Funnel Never Truly Closes
Here is the principle that most dealers miss entirely, and it may be the most valuable thing in this article.
You never give up on a lead. Not ever.
Every person who fell out of your funnel at any stage — the 30 you could not reach, the 21 who would not set an appointment, the 15 who did not show, the 10 who came in but did not buy — every single one of them is still a potential customer.
Their situation will change. Their credit will improve. Their lease will end. Their current vehicle will break down. Their finances will stabilize. And when that moment comes, you want to be the dealer who has been quietly, consistently, professionally staying in front of them.
Place every uncontacted lead, every unappointed prospect, every no-show, and every unsold showroom visit into a structured drip campaign. Stay in contact. Provide value. Do not disappear.
The dealers who win long-term in subprime are not the ones who squeeze the most out of a single campaign. They are the ones who build a database of people they have served, attempted to serve, and never stopped trying to serve — and they work that database with discipline.
The funnel has four stages. But it does not have an end.
—
What To Do Right Now
For your next subprime campaign, track four numbers:
1. Contacts made / leads received (two-way conversations only)
2. Appointments set / contacts made
3. Appointments shown / appointments set
4. Sales closed / appointments shown
Set the goal at 100% for each one. Measure where you actually land. Then fix the stage that is bleeding — not the lead source.
The leads are not the problem. They never were.
Where is your dealership losing them?
—
Denny Long is President of Subprime Marketing Group and has spent 35+ years developing subprime automotive marketing programs for franchise and independent dealers nationwide. He is the creator of the EasyDrive Card program. Connect with him at SubprimeMarketingGroup.com or denny@subprimemg.com
