Dealix launched a new feature Wednesday that the company is calling Buyer Insight, which can offer dealers information about past new-vehicle lead activity.

With Buyer Insight, executives explained that each Dealix lead sent to a dealer can be enhanced with timely data derived from the past 60 days of lead activity. Dealix stated it can indicate if the lead is the first lead Dealix has seen from the buyer in the past 60 days.

If Dealix identifies that the buyer has previously submitted a lead, then Buyer Insight can indicate whether similar buyers submitted additional leads for the same make of vehicle or for a competing brand.

Executives emphasized the feature responds to dealers’ requests for more information about the lead and can share pinpointed analysis through one of three types:

—First Activity Buyer: No previous lead activity seen by this e-mail address in the past 60 days. Dealix said this is the largest category of the three.

—Brand Focus Buyer: This buyer type typically submits multiple leads for the same brand. For example, executives noted a request for information on a Chevrolet where the shopper has also inquired about a Chevrolet vehicle to another dealer.

—Cross-Brand Buyer: This buyer type typically submits multiple leads, including leads for another brand.

With Buyer Insight, Dealix noted that dealers can tailor their sales approach based on information about the buyer, allowing them to improve their chances for sales success.

More than half of dealers responding to a recent Dealix survey said that they would change their processes to take advantage of Buyer Insight and 72 percent said that they would expect to see close rates improve if their sales team had Buyer Insight data readily available.

David Kain, president of Kain Automotive.com, a provider of training services for Internet-generated sales, reacted to those Dealix survey results.

“When dealers have more information about their shoppers’ interests, they can create better processes to serve those prospects,” Kain pointed out.

“Dealix is now setting the bar for the provision of quality information,” he added.

A manager of a California franchise dealership also offered his perspective of what Buyer Insight could do at his store.

“In today’s ultra-competitive marketplace, more and more online shoppers are leveraging the power of the Internet to collect information from multiple dealerships through a variety of lead providers. This poses a unique challenge for the individual dealer who must now attempt to determine exactly who they are competing against, and at what level of interest the consumer is at in the buying cycle,” explained Manuel Souza, eCommerce sales director at Anderson Honda in Palo Alto, Calif.

“Dealix’s launch of Buyer Insight will set the standard for other lead providers by giving their partnering dealerships a glimpse into that customer’s previous shopping habits prior to them receiving the lead,” Souza added.

Dealix said that Buyer Insight is only the latest in a series of enhancements that the company has made to its new- and used-vehicle lead programs.

Previously, the company launched the Quality Pledge and Hassle Free Lead Return in September of last year. With that program, executives recounted that Dealix uniquely promised its customers that if a lead wasn’t in market, or didn’t have a contactable phone number, the dealer could return it or get it replaced.

Dealix insisted it was able to offer such a program because of its extensive investment in the Dealix Leads Platform, as well as its supply partnerships, which include exclusive agreements to power the dealer selector and price quote platforms of Yahoo Autos, MSN Autos and AOL Autos.

Like the Quality Pledge, Anna Zornosa, vice president at ADP and general manager of its Dealix division, declared Buyer Insight reinforces Dealix’s category leadership in providing dealers with valuable leads and the insight with which to serve its customers.

“Dealix can offer Buyer Insight because of our industry-leading supply network and our powerful lead sourcing, verification and delivery technology,” Zornosa emphasized.

“This, combined with our decade of experience, gives us total confidence in the value our products bring to dealers,” she added.

For more details about buyer Insight, dealers can visit www.dealix.com or call (800) 903-1965.