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LotWalk Feature

The car sold. The lead didn't have to die with it.

Switch Leads is the LotWalk feature that finds every open lead on a unit you just sold and matches it to comparable cars sitting on your lot right now. The BDC gets a live vehicle to sell instead of a dead file, and you paid nothing extra for the customer.

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The short answer

Switch Leads are open leads on a vehicle that has already sold, re-matched by LotWalk to comparable vehicles still in stock. Most stores mark those leads dead the moment the car delivers. LotWalk keeps them alive, pairs each one with a live unit that fits the same shopper, and puts the match on the BDC's morning Action Plan. It is how LotWalk dealers give 60-70% of their lost leads a second chance without spending another dollar on advertising.

The lead problem

Most of your lead activity is on cars you cannot sell.

Three numbers from the LotWalk one-pager. They show up, in some form, on almost every Lot Audit we run.

60-70%of leads are on cars no longer in stockThe shopper is still in the market. The car they asked about is gone.
50/10/50the lead concentration problemHalf your leads sit on 10% of the inventory. Half the inventory has zero leads.
70-80%of BDC and sales activity is off in-stock carsMost of the day's calls and emails chase units the store cannot deliver.
The old way

How a lead dies today.

This is not a training problem. It is how most CRMs and most processes are set up to behave.

1

A unit sells

A shopper submits a lead on a 2022 Rogue on Tuesday. Thursday, a walk-in buys that Rogue. The lead is still open in the CRM, and the shopper is still shopping.

2

Most stores mark the lead dead

The BDC sees "sold" next to the stock number and closes the file, or drops it into a status nobody looks at again. Follow-up stops that day.

3

The customer buys elsewhere

That shopper wanted a compact SUV in a price range, not one specific VIN. They buy one across town, and you already paid for the lead that could have sold them a car.

The LotWalk way

How Switch Leads keeps it alive.

Nothing to flag by hand. Nothing for the BDC manager to remember. The match is waiting when the team logs in.

1

LotWalk sees the open leads on the sold unit

When the DMS and CRM report the sale, LotWalk pulls every lead still open on that vehicle. The leads that would have gone dark are the starting point.

2

It matches them to comparable cars in stock right now

LotWalk looks at what you own today, not what you owned when the lead came in, and pairs each shopper with a comparable unit on the ground.

3

The match lands on the morning Action Plan

The BDC opens the day with the switch already written: this lead, this unit, this reason to call. The rep picks up the phone with something real to offer.

Inside LotWalk

What a Switch Lead looks like on the desk.

A slice of the LotWalk desktop view. Each row is a lead that would have been marked dead, now attached to a car you can deliver today.

mylotwalk.com / Switch Leads
Switch Leads 4 No Leads / Switches > Predictor No Leads in 7 Days
LeadSold unit (lead was on)Switch to (in stock now)AgeLeadsStatus
#44712022 Nissan Rogue SV Stk 241872022 Toyota RAV4 XLE Stk 2430234 days0Call today
#44682021 Ford F-150 XLT Stk 240112020 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LT Stk 2427647 days1Call today
#44552023 Honda Civic EX Stk 242302022 Toyota Corolla SE Stk 2431919 days0Worked
#44322020 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited Stk 239882021 Ford Explorer XLT Stk 2414558 days0Call today

Sample data for illustration. Stock numbers, vehicles, lead IDs, and counts are fictional.

Recovery, not generation

Why this is BDC lead recovery, not lead generation.

Lead generation means buying more shoppers. Third-party listings, paid search, another provider promising more form fills. Every one of those costs money before the first phone call, and most stores are already paying for more leads than the BDC works well.

Switch Leads is the opposite play. There is no new ad spend. The customer is already paid for, sitting in your CRM. The inventory is already owned, sitting on your lot with floorplan running. The only thing missing was the connection between the two, and that is the piece LotWalk builds every morning. When 60-70% of your leads are on cars you no longer have, the cheapest lead in the building is the one you already bought and stopped calling.

That is why we call it BDC lead recovery software and not a lead tool. The BDC's job shifts from chasing a stock number to selling a shopper, which is what it should have been all along. If you want the process behind it, start with used car lead recovery and the specific playbook for recovering leads on sold vehicles.

One more thing dealers notice on the Lot Audit. The units Switch Leads points to are usually the ones with zero leads of their own, the other half of the 50/10/50 problem. Recovering the lead and putting activity on a quiet car happen in the same phone call.

Day to day

What the BDC sees, and what the coach checks.

Switch Leads are worked from the morning Action Plan, the same ranked list that tells the team which cars to work, which leads to call, and which reps to push. A Switch Lead is not a separate report the BDC manager has to remember to open. It is already in the day's list, with the sold unit, the comparable unit, and the shopper attached.

On the LotWalk vehicle cards, each unit shows its lead counts and its Switch count next to Age, Price to Market, and Predictor, so a manager walking the lot on the desktop can see which cars are picking up recovered activity and which are still quiet. The No Leads / Switches filter chip at the top of the view pulls the units with neither, with a live count, and the At Risk view breaks that same issue out by age bucket.

Then the accountability layer. The Scoreboard carries a Switch Leads trend chart alongside Total Worked and Total Active, and a user table showing leads worked and vehicles worked in the last seven days by name. Your Performance Engineer opens the coaching call there. If Switch Lead activity is flat, the coach and your BDC manager see it in the same minute and put it on the game plan. That loop, software plus a coach who checks, is the reason the leads actually get called.

FAQ

Questions dealers ask about Switch Leads.

What is a Switch Lead?
A Switch Lead is an open lead on a vehicle that has already sold, re-matched by LotWalk to a comparable vehicle that is still in stock. Instead of closing the lead when the car delivers, LotWalk keeps it alive, pairs it with a live unit, and puts the match on the BDC's morning Action Plan so the customer gets a call with a real car to talk about.
Why do so many dealership leads end up on sold cars?
Because leads pile up on the cars that are already selling. On the LotWalk one-pager, 60-70% of a dealer's leads are on cars that are no longer in stock, and 50% of leads sit on only 10% of the inventory while half the inventory has zero leads. A hot unit collects a dozen leads, sells to one of them, and the other eleven shoppers are still in the market with nobody calling them.
Does Switch Leads replace my CRM?
No. Your CRM tracks what happened: who came in, who called, what was said. LotWalk reads that lead and activity data and tells the team what to do next. Switch Leads uses the open leads already sitting in your CRM and the inventory you already own. Nothing moves out of the CRM, and your reps keep working in the tools they know.
Which CRMs does Switch Leads work with?
LotWalk connects to 50+ dealer systems, including VinSolutions, eLeads, DriveCentric, and DealerSocket on the CRM side, along with the DMS and inventory tools most stores already run. There is nothing to install and no rip and replace. Most dealers are live inside two weeks, and the integration is handled during onboarding.
How many lost leads does Switch Leads recover?
Across LotWalk dealers, 60-70% of lost leads are given a second chance through Switch Leads. That does not mean every one of them buys. It means the lead gets a real follow-up call with a comparable car attached instead of being marked dead the day the original unit sold. The number of those calls that turn into deliveries depends on how consistently the BDC works the Action Plan, which is exactly what the coach checks every call.
Is Switch Leads included in every LotWalk plan?
Yes. Every LotWalk plan includes the full software, Switch Leads included. LotWalk Plus is $995 per month per department with a monthly 1-on-1 coaching call. LotWalk Pro is $1995 per month per department with a weekly coaching call, a written game plan after every call, and team training. The only difference between plans is how often your Performance Engineer shows up.
The takeaway

Stop looking at your numbers. Start working them.

Every store already has the data Switch Leads runs on. The CRM knows which leads are open. The DMS knows which cars sold. The inventory feed knows what is on the ground today. Sitting on that data costs you the shopper. Working it, every morning, from a list someone is held to, turns a dead file into a delivery.

Switch Leads is one feature of LotWalk, the dealership performance system that pairs live inventory and lead data with a dedicated Performance Engineer. See how it fits with the rest of the platform, or see pricing.

See your own Switch Leads on a free Lot Audit.

A Lotpop coach pulls up your live inventory and lead data and shows you how many open leads are sitting on cars you no longer own. You leave with the findings whether or not you buy anything.

Book a Lot Audit →
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