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Isaac Herzberg has worked in automotive since college, pulling tours at retailers and vendors alike over the last twenty years. Herzberg currently works as the New Vehicle Sales Manager at Heritage Cadillac in Lombard, IL. He’s built a reputation for passionate work ethic and enthusiasm, and for helping to turn around underperforming stores. Given his tenure in automotive, he has seen just about every vendor in the space, multiple times over.

Making Changes

Herzberg first learned of TradePending through GM’s Dealer Digital Solution Program. He was looking to find a replacement for Accu-Trade at the Napleton Group locations that he managed. After implementing Trade at a single location, the results led the team to implement TradePending across all Napleton Auto Group sites. 

Fast-forward a few years and Herzberg finds himself at Heritage Cadillac, and inheriting Kelley Blue Book’s Instant Cash Offer on their websites. “I knew we needed to bring on TradePending as quickly as we could,” says Herzberg. “We couldn’t control the values we were presenting to customers, which means we were giving up a big piece of control in our inventory sourcing strategy. I also believed we could be converting a lot more of our traffic from our website, given how well TradePending converted for me in the past.”

Better Leads & Consistent Values

Heritage Cadillac saw immediate growth in lead volume after implementing TradePending, but just as important as growth was establishing the right relationship. “TradePending listened to the culture and structure of Heritage, and helped us fine tune Trade to match our approach. You just can’t do this with other tools.”

Maintaining consistent values across their website was critical to Herzberg. “We use Gubagoo to power our online chat, where customers can also request to value their trade-in,” continues Herzberg. “If our customers saw one value in chat, and then another from our website, they’d lose confidence and trust in us. TradePending’s integration into Gubagoo ensures our customers get the same value for their trade-in, no matter what tool or solution they’re using”.

Taking Advantage of Trade+

TradePending offers an additional suite of features known as Trade+. One key feature is the “VDP View History”, which captures the vehicles a consumer has been browsing, and how frequently they browse them. 

Heritage Cadillac also utilizes the “Hot Leads” report, which sends a daily email summarizing customers that have previously valued their trade-in, and are now coming back to the website again. This report also includes the vehicles that they’ve been researching. 

Herzberg sums up the value of this data as a sales enablement tool. “We know what the consumer is looking for without having to ask, which gives our team another tool to create meaningful conversations. It’s all about connection. If you don’t have that, you’re out. It’s been a big help”.

Delivering Results

All great vendor/customer relationships depend upon a great product as well as great execution from the teams using them. Heritage Cadillac pairs Trade with smart email marketing and consistent messaging that delivers ongoing results.

“We’ve stood firm during the pandemic that we were not going to price above MSRP. Our talk tracks are focused on “Savings and Selection”, and we stand by that. We know that if we can get customers in the door, we’ll win them over with our approach. TradePending fills part of that process through a simple, transparent approach to valuing their trade-in. This creates better leads, which enables us to have better conversations. And these leads convert to deals. Period.”

Indeed, Heritage Cadillac routinely closes 12% of their trade-in leads, amounting to 10-12 new vehicles sold per month. When they review their monthly analytics for top performing lead sources, TradePending consistently remains in the top 3 sources each month. 

“Our return on investment with TradePending is absolutely fantastic,” concludes Herzberg. “There’s nothing on the market today that can unseat TradePending as our trade-in partner”.

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