As Head of Marketing for the BYD brand within Inchcape covering Belgium and Luxembourg, Laura Valat oversees campaigns, media, budgets, PR and digital activity, while helping connect marketing with sales.
With a significant marketing budget generating thousands of leads, Laura’s focus goes beyond lead volume. She needs to know what happens after each enquiry reaches the dealer network. How quickly does someone respond? Is the customer successfully contacted? Does that conversation lead to an appointment or sale?
For Laura, this is where marketing performance becomes measurable. In the following testimonial, she explains how greater visibility into lead handling has helped BYD understand where value is being gained, where it is being lost and how dealer performance can improve.
What problem were you trying to solve?
“There were two main problems.
The first was visibility. We were sending leads into Salesforce, where they would eventually be closed, converted or marked as not converted. But we could not clearly see what happened between the lead arriving and the final outcome. We did not know which leads had been followed up and which had not.
The second problem was understanding how the follow-up happened. We wanted to know how quickly dealers responded, how many times they tried to make contact and whether the activity led to a real conversation.
We also wanted to understand the outcome of that conversation. Did it lead to an appointment? Was there clear interest? Was it a longer-term opportunity? Or did the process stop after one email or one unsuccessful call?
Salesforce gave us conversion data, but it did not tell us whether the lead had been handled properly. That was the gap we needed to close.”
Why did you choose TrackBack?
“The value proposition matched our needs very closely. At around the same time, colleagues working with another brand were exploring the same questions. We reached similar conclusions independently, which gave us greater confidence in the decision.
TrackBack gave us a practical way to see what happened after a lead reached the dealer network without replacing the systems we already used. That was important.
We were not looking for another CRM or lead management system. We needed a clearer view of the follow-up process around the systems already in place. TrackBack offered that visibility.”
How did the implementation go?
“Most of the time was spent on internal governance rather than the technical work. Our first discussions took place in March, and we signed in October. The delay came from internal approvals, stakeholder meetings and budget sign-off. Once those decisions were made, the technical implementation moved quickly.
We began with a pilot involving two dealers. That gave us a chance to test the process, gather feedback and confirm that the system was easy to use. The pilot dealers were important because they helped us validate the approach before a wider rollout. Once they were comfortable with the process, we rolled TrackBack out nationally.
Overall, the implementation was smoother and quicker than I expected.
I came from the telecoms sector, where IT projects could take months. This felt very different. The implementation took a matter of days or, at most, a couple of weeks. TrackBack was also flexible when timelines changed, which made the rollout easier to manage.”
Why did the rollout timing matter?
“Timing was critical because January is the biggest sales period in Belgium. The Brussels Motor Show creates a major peak in enquiries.
In a normal month, we might receive somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 leads. During the Motor Show period, that can rise to around 12,000. That is a huge increase in pressure for the dealer network. We knew the system had to be working smoothly before that peak arrived.
We ran the pilot in November, rolled TrackBack out more widely in December and wanted the process to be settled by January. That gave us time to identify any issues before the busiest point of the year. In practice, the rollout went well and we did not experience any major problems during the January peak.”
How did dealers respond?
“I expected more resistance than we experienced. My concern was that dealers might see the programme as a sign that we did not trust them. I expected questions such as, “Why are you checking us?” or “Do you think we are not doing our jobs?”
That was not the reaction we received during the initial presentation.
We positioned TrackBack around transparency and customer experience. It was not about listening to calls or judging what salespeople said. There was no call recording. The system measured practical activity.
Did someone make the call? Was the customer reached? How many attempts were made? How long did the conversation last? That helped remove some of the concern about being monitored. We were measuring whether the process happened, not listening in on the conversation.
The pilot dealers also confirmed that TrackBack was easy to use. Once the sales teams understood the purpose behind it, onboarding was straightforward.
There was some resistance later from a small number of dealers when the data started to show that the process was not always being followed. But the initial reaction was more positive than I expected.”
What did you learn once TrackBack went live?
“The biggest early finding was that many leads were not being called. In some cases, emails were being sent, but salespeople were not picking up the phone. That surprised me.
The first priority was therefore not to improve call speed or increase persistence. It was simply to make phone follow-up part of the process again. Once calling activity started to improve, we could ask more of the network. We wanted dealers to call sooner. We also wanted them to make more than one attempt if the customer did not answer.
At one stage, the average response time was around five days. That has since reduced to around three or four days. That is a step in the right direction, but it is still not where we want it to be.
The average number of attempts also remained low, at around 1.2. That meant many leads were still receiving little more than one call attempt.
Our expectation is that, if the customer cannot be reached the first time, the dealer should try again at least twice. After that, they can send an email to explain that they have tried to make contact and provide a direct number for the customer to call back.
One attempt is not a process.”
Why was this such a significant change?
“For some teams, the challenge was not the technology. It was the change in behaviour. Some salespeople had become used to sending an email and waiting for the customer to respond or visit the showroom. Others were no longer treating outbound calling as a normal part of lead follow-up.
TrackBack made that visible.
Once the gap became clear, the conversation could move from assumption to action. The question was no longer whether leads were being followed up properly. We could see where the process stopped. That gave managers something specific to work on with their teams.”
Why does speed matter?
The data showed a clear link between response time and contact rate. Dealers that called within a few hours were more likely to reach the customer. Dealers that waited several days had a much lower chance of making contact.
For example, we could compare one dealer that called within eight hours and achieved a strong reach rate with another that waited several days and had a much lower rate. That was useful because it moved the discussion away from opinion.
We could show dealers that faster follow-up did not just look better on a report. It gave them a better chance of speaking to the customer. The longer they waited, the less likely the customer was to answer. That also meant the process could take more time overall.
When the first attempt happens too late, the salesperson is more likely to reach voicemail. They then need to make further attempts, leave messages or send follow-up emails. Fast follow-up matters, but meaningful contact matters more.
The aim is not simply to make the first call quickly. It is to create a real conversation while the customer’s interest is still fresh.”
How did TrackBack change conversations with dealers?
“TrackBack gave us a more balanced view of performance.
When a dealer said they did not receive enough leads or did not have enough showroom traffic, we could look at the leads they already had and see how those enquiries were handled. We could review response time, contact rates and conversion performance together. That changed the conversation.
Rather than debating whether there were enough leads, we could first look at whether the existing opportunity had been worked properly.
The point was not to criticise the dealer. It was to ask a fair question: before we focus on creating more demand, are we making the most of the demand already there? Very often, the dealers raising concerns about lead volume were also the dealers with the weakest follow-up.
The data helped calm those conversations by giving everyone the same view. Numbers are often stronger than words.”
How do you avoid making TrackBack feel like surveillance?
“The way the programme is presented matters. We explained that TrackBack was about transparency, consistency and customer experience. It was not about listening in or controlling conversations. We also adapted the message for different audiences.
For site managers, TrackBack provided a clearer view of how leads were being handled across the team. It helped them see which salespeople were following the process and where support or coaching might be needed.
For salespeople, the focus was more on clarity, recognition and results. The reports could show who was responding quickly, who was making consistent attempts and who was achieving strong contact rates.
That created a more positive conversation.
Salespeople are often motivated by targets and visible results, even when they say they are not. When they can compare performance and see what good follow-up looks like, the data can create healthy competition. It can also help recognise the people who are doing the right things consistently.
The involvement of the site manager or sales manager was especially important. When that person understood the value of TrackBack and used the data with the team, engagement improved. In that sense, the programme supported managers as much as it supported the brand.
It gave them a clearer way to monitor activity and coach their own teams.”
Did usage improve over time?
“Yes, but it happened in stages. The first phase was onboarding. The second was getting people to use the system consistently. After the rollout, we found that some dealers were not using TrackBack properly or were not using it at all.
That meant we needed to introduce stronger accountability. A penalty system was put in place, and usage started to increase. The next challenge was then to move beyond basic usage.
It was not enough for dealers simply to log activity. We wanted them to improve the quality of the process. That meant shorter response times, more attempts and more real customer contact.
The data gave us a way to see whether that direction of travel was improving.”
What would you say to a brand that believes its dealers already follow-up well?
“You may trust that the process is working, but without the numbers, you do not really know. That does not mean the network is doing a bad job. It means assumptions are not enough. TrackBack replaces those assumptions with evidence.
It shows whether leads are being followed up, how quickly the first attempt happens, how persistent the process is and whether the customer is actually contacted.
That visibility helps brands and dealers understand what is working and where the process can improve. A reply is not the same as progress. An email may show activity, but it does not always create the conversation needed to move the customer forward.”
What has been most useful day to day?
“The most useful part has been the ability to see the follow-up process clearly. We can look at speed, reach rates and activity levels. We can identify where the process is working well and where it needs more attention.
It also helps us have better conversations with the network. Instead of saying, “We think follow-up is too slow,” we can show what is happening. Instead of saying, “You need to make more calls,” we can show the number of attempts being made and the effect that has on contact rates.
Visibility changes behaviour. That does not happen overnight, but the data gives us a practical basis for improvement.”
How would you sum up the value of TrackBack?
“TrackBack gives us visibility and transparency over what happens to our leads in an effective and easy way. It helps us understand what happens after the lead lands. It shows whether the process is happening, how well it is happening and where teams need support.
For us, that means better conversations with the dealer network, more consistent follow-up and a clearer link between marketing activity and sales performance.
Contact creates appointments. Appointments create sales.”