PROVO, UT--(MARKET WIRE)--Aug 26, 2008 -- InsideSales.com announced the 1st Place through 5th Place Winners of the 2008 ResponseAwards from among the top 100 automobile mega-dealers in the US (determined by 2007 revenues.)

 
Winners are:

Placement         Mega-Dealer                 Response Time
1st Place         Jim Click Ford              1 minute 31 seconds
2nd Place         Piercey Automotive Group    2 minutes 28 seconds
3rd Place         Hendrick Automotive Group   4 minutes 0 seconds
4th Place (tie)   Bob Baker Auto Group        5 minutes 0 seconds
4th Place (tie)   Jim Koons Automotive        5 minutes 0 seconds
5th Place         Huffines Auto Group         5 minutes 16 seconds

66 of the top 100 mega-dealers responded by phone with the average response time by phone of ten hours, ten minutes, and 47 seconds. 34 dealers never responded at all by phone.

81 of the top 100 mega-dealers responded by email, with the average number of email attempts being 3.16. 19 dealers never responded at all by email. The highest number of attempts by email was 9.

Winners were determined by ResponseAudit by InsideSales.com, the technology that tests, tracks, and records email and phone responses to inquiries submitted to a company Web site. ResponseAudit representatives used 'secret shopper' tactics, posing as prospective automobile buyers by submitting fictitious contact information on each mega-dealer site.

The 2008 Response Awards were given for the five (six) fastest responses by phone by live representatives. Email responses were not reported because of passive auto-responders with 'canned content' that do not facilitate live discussions.

"We congratulate the winners of the 2008 ResponseAwards in the automotive industry as shining examples of best practices," says Dave Elkington, CEO of InsideSales.com. "Online automotive shoppers can look to these dealerships as providing the epitome of responsiveness in an already responsive industry. These are the best of the best."

By tracking responses against industry benchmarks, companies dramatically improve increase contact and qualification rates. Recent lead response management research from MIT shows the odds of making contact with a Web-based inquiry increases 100 times if attempted within five minutes of submission of the inquiry.

Mr. Elkington continues, "The ResponseAwards recognize companies in this fast-paced Internet economy for outstanding response practices. It is especially meaningful because these dealerships were unaware these response audits were performed."

The top 5 winners and a summary of response statistics this research study is published on the ResponseAwards Web site.

Mega-Dealers who did not win may contact the ResponseAudit team to learn their audit results by dialing 866-342-5370.

Additional awards will be given yearly in other Web-based industries.

About ResponseAudit and ResponseAwards

ResponseAudit is powered by InsideSales.com to help the marketing and sales departments of Web-based companies track and measure the timeliness, consistency, and persistence of responses from their representatives to inquiries from Web visitors. ResponseAudit provides an unbiased review of the response practices of an organization.

For more information about obtaining ResponseAudit Trust Marks on each company Web form, visit http://www.ResponseAudit.com

About InsideSales.com

InsideSales.com was the first hosted lead management solution with built-in dialer technology. InsideSales.com pioneered the field of lead response management (LRM) and gained recent prominence with research in conjunction with Kellogg and MIT on the impact of immediate response to Web leads. On the heels of the recent PowerDialer for Salesforce.com product announcement, ResponseAudit forges a new way for marketing to increase results from existing spending. InsideSales.com offers a full suite of lead management, lead nurturing, and power dialer solutions. To learn more visit http://www.InsideSales.com.

     InsideSales.com Contact:
     Ken Krogue
     801-853-4070