Lead Intake Checklist: What to Capture on Every Internet Lead

Saturday morning, the BDC board shows fourteen new internet leads. Six of them have a first name, a phone number that goes to voicemail, and a vehicle of interest that sold on Thursday. Two more were entered as "Internet" with no source, no stock number, and a note that says "wants a truck." By noon, two reps have called the same number, one associate has already marked a live unit sold in the CRM because the lead "sounded like a buyer," and the used-car manager has no idea which inquiries actually need a callback.

Speed without intake is just noise. A first reply in two minutes is wasted if the store cannot find the thread, cannot tell which VIN the buyer asked about, and cannot hand the conversation to the next person on the floor. The lead intake checklist is the operational layer most stores skip: a short, required set of fields captured on every internet lead before anyone is allowed to treat it as "worked."

This guide is written for internet directors, BDC managers, used-car managers and floor reps who already live in a CRM. It defines what to capture, when to capture it, how to do it without killing the conversation, and how to audit the habit so incomplete records stop poisoning appointments.

Why a Lead Intake Checklist Beats Faster Guesswork

Most stores already have a CRM. What they do not have is a shared definition of a complete lead. One BDC agent types a full walk-up. Another pastes a Messenger screenshot into notes and moves on. A sales rep creates a second record because they cannot find the first. Attribution, follow-up and show-rate all collapse from the same root: the record was never a record.

Incomplete records create three expensive failures

• Double work. Two people call the same buyer, or nobody calls because each assumes the other owns it.
• Wrong unit. The buyer asked about a specific stock number; the store talks about a similar trim that is not the one they saw.
• Dead attribution. If source is "Internet" or blank, you cannot tell a Marketplace inquiry from a website form, so you cannot manage either.

A complete intake record does not slow a good operator. It stops a bad record from entering the pipeline, which is the same discipline a Marketplace internet sales process depends on. The extra thirty seconds of capture is cheaper than a missed appointment, a duplicate CRM row, or a sold unit that is still being promised on the phone.

Intake is not the same as qualification

Qualification decides whether the buyer can actually purchase. Intake decides whether the store can work the lead at all. Capture identity, vehicle, source and next step first. Credit, trade and timeline come next, once you have a conversation. Mixing the two is how BDC scripts turn into interrogations and how floor reps skip the fields they will need at 6 p.m.

The Core Fields Every Internet Lead Must Carry

Treat the following as required, not "nice if we have time." If a field is missing, the lead is not complete and should not be counted as worked in any report.

Identity and contact

Capture enough to reach the person and to de-duplicate them:

• Full name as given, even if it is only a first name plus an initial.
• Primary phone, and a second number if they offer one.
• Email if they provided it; do not invent one.
• Preferred contact method: call, text, Messenger, or email.
• Time window they said they can talk, in their words.

Do not overwrite an existing customer record until you have confirmed it is the same person. Same last name and same city is not enough.

Vehicle of interest

This is the field stores get wrong most often. "Wants an SUV" is not a vehicle of interest.

• Year, make, model and trim if stated.
• Stock number or VIN if they referenced a listing.
• Color or package only if they named it.
• Whether they asked about a specific unit or a category.
• Status of that unit at intake: available, pending, sold, or in recon.

If the unit is sold, say so immediately and capture the substitute they will actually consider. Logging a sold VIN as the vehicle of interest guarantees a wasted appointment.

Intent and next step

Every complete record ends with a scheduled action, not a feeling:

• What they asked for in the first message (price, availability, trade, financing, photos).
• Appointment date and time, or the next promised contact.
• Who owns the next action: named person, not "BDC" or "floor."
• How they will arrive: in person, video walkaround, or phone only.

If there is no next step, the intake is unfinished. "Will follow up" is not a next step.

Source and campaign

Source must be specific enough that a manager can run a report. "Internet" is not a source. Capture:

• Channel: Marketplace, dealer website, third-party listing, Facebook group, phone-in from a listing, walk-in who saw the listing.
• Listing identifier if you have one: stock number, VIN, or the title they quoted.
• Which account or profile received the inquiry, when that applies.
• Date and time the inquiry arrived, not the time someone typed it into the CRM.

Clean source naming is covered in more depth in the companion piece on lead source naming conventions. Intake is where those names either get used or get ignored.

How to Capture Intake Without Killing the Conversation

Buyers will not sit through a ten-field interrogation in Messenger. The checklist is a back-end standard, not a script you read aloud.

Capture in three passes

1. Immediate pass (first reply). Confirm the vehicle, confirm availability, ask one question that produces a next step. Log name, contact method, stock or VIN, and source before you hit send on the first reply if you can; immediately after if you cannot.
2. Conversation pass. As they answer, add preferred time, trade mention, and whether they are local. Do not stall the thread to fill every box.
3. Close-the-record pass. Before you leave the lead, fill remaining required fields and write the next-step sentence. If you cannot, the lead stays in "incomplete" and a manager can see it.

Channel-specific capture habits

Marketplace and website leads do not arrive with the same data. Treat them as different intake jobs, which is why Marketplace leads and dealer website leads belong in different handling rules.

What not to capture on the first touch

Do not demand Social Security numbers, full credit applications, or a trade VIN before you have confirmed the car is still there and booked a time. That is qualification and compliance work, not intake. This article is operational guidance, not legal advice; confirm with counsel which data your store is allowed to collect and how long you may keep it.

Common Intake Failures That Poison the CRM

A checklist only works if managers treat missing fields as defects, not as personality.

The five defects to kill in the first week

• Screenshot-as-record. A photo of a Messenger thread in notes is not searchable and is not owned.
• Sold-unit ghost. Vehicle of interest points at a VIN that is already marked sold in inventory.
• Orphan source. Source is blank, "Other," or "Internet."
• Unowned next step. Notes say "hot" with no person and no time.
• Duplicate person. Second record created because the first could not be found by phone number.

A weekly manager audit that takes fifteen minutes

Pick twenty internet leads from the last seven days. Score each against the required fields. Do not average the store into a vague grade. Count defects:

1. Identity complete: yes or no.
2. Vehicle of interest is a VIN or stock number, or an explicit category with a substitute: yes or no.
3. Source is a named channel, not "Internet": yes or no.
4. Next step has a person and a time: yes or no.
5. Duplicate check was done: yes or no.

Any lead with two or more "no" answers is incomplete. Incomplete leads should not count toward a BDC "touched" number. If they do, the team will optimize for volume of empty records.

Who is allowed to create the record

Decide this once. Typical rule: BDC or the first responder creates the CRM record; the floor may update it; nobody creates a second record without searching phone and email first. Associates who only post inventory should not be inventing CRM customers from a Marketplace ping unless that is their assigned job.

How PostToMarket Automates This

Incomplete intake usually starts before the CRM: the inquiry lives in a personal Messenger thread, the listing is not tied to a stock number the store can find, and sold units are still being discussed because inventory status is tribal knowledge. PostToMarket does not replace your CRM. It reduces the operational gaps that make intake messy.

Keep the vehicle side of intake honest

• Inventory statuses (draft, posting, posted, sold, failed) so the person answering a lead can see whether the unit is actually available before they promise it.
• Mark as sold and archive from inventory or the queue, so a sold VIN stops being the vehicle of interest on new conversations.
• Unlimited vehicles in inventory on every plan, which means the unit the buyer asked about should already exist in one system instead of a spreadsheet plus a Facebook listing.

Put inquiries where a manager can see them

• Leads inbox for managers, so Marketplace conversations are not trapped on one rep's phone.
• Team analytics by rep and source, so "Marketplace" and "website" do not collapse into a single unlabeled pile.
• Roles (admin, manager, sales rep, sales associate) so the person who posts is not automatically the only person who can see the inquiry.

Make the listing itself easier to identify

• AI-generated titles and descriptions from the vehicle's specs, editable before posting, so the buyer quotes a title that actually matches a VIN.
• Chrome extension posting one vehicle at a time, with human-like delays and server-enforced daily limits, so the live listing the buyer saw is the same unit in inventory.

No tool can guarantee that every buyer will give you a last name and a phone number on the first message. What a complete posting and leads workflow can do is make sure the store is not inventing the vehicle, the status, or the source after the fact.

Run Every Internet Lead Through the Same Intake Gate

A lead intake checklist is not extra paperwork. It is the difference between a CRM you can manage and a pile of names you cannot. Require identity, vehicle, source and next step on every internet lead, audit twenty records a week, and stop counting incomplete rows as work.

PostToMarket keeps the inventory and Marketplace side of that checklist from rotting: statuses, sold-unit hygiene, a leads inbox, and posting that stays tied to real units. Starter is $59 per month for a solo seller with one login. Dealership is $299 per month for a team of up to 13 logins, including two managers.

Start your 10-day free trial with secure Stripe checkout. Import inventory, connect posting, and give your internet team a vehicle record they can actually attach a lead to. Cancel anytime.