Patent Abstract:
Exemplary methods for tracking a lead are presented. Such methods include receiving a first contact information, associating the first contact information with a second contact information, sending the second contact information, receiving a first communication, the first communication addressed to the second contact information, in response to receiving the first communication, mapping the second contact information to the first contact information, sending a second communication addressed to the first contact information, receiving a third contact information, associating the third contact information with a fourth contact information, receiving a third communication, the third communication addressed to fourth contact information, and, in response to receiving the third communication comprising the fourth contact information, mapping the fourth contact information to the third contact information, and sending a fourth communication addressed to the third contact information. 
     Exemplary methods for generating an initial response communication in response to a lead are provided. Such methods include receiving a sales lead comprising specification information of a product, accessing a database comprising local availability of the product; and determining a price quote based at least in part of the specification information and the local availability of the product.

Full Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    The present application claims the priority benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/937,856 filed Jun. 30, 2007, entitled “Intermediary Application. System to Manage Communications with Internet Sales Leads” the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    1. Technical Field 
         [0003]    The present invention relates generally to customer relationship management (CRM). Specifically, the present invention relates to the management of sales leads relating to goods and services. 
         [0004]    2. Background Art 
         [0005]    Many companies are dependent on sales leads to generate new business. In order to generate the new business, it is necessary for these companies to establish immediate and ongoing communications with potential consumers based on the sales leads. The companies that establish such communications before their competitors do increase their likelihood of securing a consumer&#39;s purchase of a product or a service. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    Exemplary methods for tracking a lead are presented. Such methods include receiving a first contact information, associating the first contact information with a second contact information, sending the second contact information, receiving a first communication, the first communication addressed to the second contact information, in response to receiving the first communication, mapping the second contact information to the first contact information, sending a second communication addressed to the first contact information, receiving a third contact information, associating the third contact information with a fourth contact information, receiving a third communication, the third communication addressed to fourth contact information, and, in response to receiving the third communication comprising the fourth contact information, mapping the fourth contact information to the third contact information, and sending a fourth communication addressed to the third contact information. 
         [0007]    Exemplary methods for generating an initial response communication in response to a lead are provided. Such methods include receiving a sales lead comprising specification information of a product, accessing a database comprising local availability of the product; and determining a price quote based at least in part of the specification information and the local availability of the product. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary architecture for tracking a sales lead including the intermediary role of the intermediary application system. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the intermediary application system. 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary method for tracking a sales lead. 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  illustrates the mapping of a sales lead to an alias in an exemplary intermediary application system. 
           [0012]      FIG. 5  illustrates an exemplary system used to construct an initial response communication as shown in  FIG. 1 . 
           [0013]      FIG. 6  illustrates an exemplary method used to construct an initial response communication. 
           [0014]      FIG. 7  illustrates an exemplary use of vehicle price quoting in determining regional vehicle configuration availability. 
           [0015]      FIG. 8  illustrates an exemplary application of a particular sophisticated pricing rule. 
           [0016]      FIG. 9  illustrates an exemplary method by which vehicle mapping may be conducted. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0017]    Companies have traditionally depended on lead sources to generate leads for their business. A lead may be, for example, a tip or a bid, but is usually a sales lead. A sales lead may be an indication of interest from a potential customer concerning the goods or services that the company provides, and thus play an important role. However, companies may become easily overwhelmed with more leads than they may readily process in a timely manner. In the case of online/internet sales leads, it is especially important to respond to sales inquiries as quickly as possible. In addition, after a company&#39;s initial response to sales leads, many sales leads do not remain “active,” in that the company no longer has regular interactions or communications with the consumer. However, these sales leads still hold value because a consumer who has once revealed a purchase interest is more likely to ultimately complete a purchase. 
         [0018]    The systems and methods described herein aim to establish immediate and ongoing communications with potential consumers through the use of an intermediary application system. Use of an intermediary application system allows for the following:: 
         [0019]    From the time of receipt of the sales lead until the sale is closed, a closed loop of communication is created wherein the consumer and the company communicate. The intermediary application system creates contact aliases for consumer contact information and for company contact information (for example a sales representative contact information). Thus, when a consumer contacts the company, or vice versa, the contact alias is used in place of the consumer contact information. As such, communications between the consumer and the company go through the intermediary application system. Contact aliases may be tracked as well, and thus a complete communication history between consumer and company is available. Intermediary application apparatus  130  may use this communication history to determine the status of communications at any time. 
         [0020]    The company is able to automatically provide detailed and specific answers to sales leads through an initial response communication generated by the intermediary application system. The initial response communication to the consumer is sent after the lead is received. This results in a dramatic increase in the percentage of leads responded to effectively and a significant time savings for the company. 
         [0021]    Existing systems used by companies for customer relationship management do not need to be replaced. CRM system capabilities are augmented and the use of the present systems and methods does not require deep system integration. 
         [0022]    The fact that communications pass through the intermediary application system enables the intermediary application system to initiate follow-up communications when there has been no communication between a consumer and a sales representative for a length of time. As such, intermediary application system may make use of a dynamically timed communication relevant to the consumer&#39;s interests as specified in the sales lead. The intermediary application system may incorporate information provided by a third party in addition to information within the intermediary application system in producing initial response communications or follow-up communications. In addition, in the normal course of interactions with intermediary application system  130 , the company may make available to the system new or updated information. The intermediary application system  130  can recognize such information and dynamically update its internal resources upon receipt of the new or updated information. 
         [0023]    The systems and methods described herein are with reference to examples that are purely illustrative. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that various modifications may be made and embodiments may be used in conjunction with the systems and methods presented. 
         [0024]      FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary architecture  100  according to an embodiment of the present invention. The architecture  100  includes a lead source system  120 , an intermediary application apparatus  130  and a contact management system  140 . The architecture  100  may optionally include a data feed system  150  and a data management system  160 . The architecture  100  may be configured on one computer or on multiple computers. 
         [0025]    The lead source system  120  may be a company, an application, a website, a service, or some combination that generates or aggregates sales leads and delivers them to a company. Lead source system  120  may also include the company&#39;s own lead generation and collection systems, such as the company&#39;s website. In  FIG. 1 , a potential consumer  110  identifies him/herself as a sales lead  170 A by entering consumer information using lead source system tools or a website. This consumer information may include the consumer&#39;s name, the consumer&#39;s contact information, and other consumer information. The contact information received may include an e-mail address, a telephone number, an instant-message screen name, or a website URL. Multiple e-mail addresses and multiple telephone numbers may also be included in sales lead  170 A. Other consumer information may be received, such as the consumer&#39;s name or her demographic information, in order to facilitate targeted marketing. 
         [0026]    The intermediary application system  130  receives the sales lead  170 A from lead source system  120 . Upon receipt of the sales lead, the intermediary application system  130  associates the consumer contact information from the sales lead  170 A to a consumer contact alias. The contact alias may be a randomly generated number, e-mail address, telephone number, or the like. For example, an e-mail address might be username@domainname.com, and the contact alias may be 4567@response.com. The system  130  may also associate other information provided in the sales lead  170 A with one or more aliases. Thus, a sales lead containing the consumer contact alias and other alias are used to generate a modified sales lead  170 B. This modified sales lead is forwarded to a contact management system  140 . Alternatively, only the consumer contact alias may be sent to contact management system  140 . 
         [0027]    Contact management system  140  may be partially or wholly integrated into the intermediary application system  130 . Alternatively, contact management system  140  may be a customer relationship management system belonging to a company. The contact management system  140  recognizes the consumer contact alias and stores information corresponding to consumer  110 . In some embodiments, the consumer contact alias for an e-mail address may be embedded in the modified sales lead and sent to the contact management system  140 . The contact management system  140  may assign sales lead  170 A to a sales representative  190  who may pursue the lead on behalf of the company. Upon receipt of the consumer contact alias, contact management system  140  may request a communication with consumer  110  and initiate the communication using the consumer contact alias. Such a contact management request  175  may provide the contact information of the sales representative  190  who is assigned the lead by the contact management system  140 . It is sent to the consumer contact alias, which ensures that it is sent into intermediary application system  130 . 
         [0028]    Upon receipt of the contact management request  175 , intermediary application system  130  receives the contact information of sales representative  190  and associates a sales contact alias to the sales representative&#39;s contact information, similar to the consumer contact alias. The intermediary application system  130  generates a response to send to consumer  110 , an initial response communication  180 . Initial response communication  180  contains, among other information, the sales contact alias of sales representative  190 . Communications may be conducted using ordinary tools in the art, such as e-mail, telephone, instant message, SMS, or through a posting on a website. All communications are routed through intermediary application apparatus  130 , and then to consumer  110  via process  185 . Some forms of communication, such as telephone communication, may involve the engagement of a third-party vendor. The intermediary application system  130  may send the initial response communication  180  on behalf of the company. After the initial response communication  180  is sent, a process or an event may be performed signaling completion. For example, a log activity may be generated in intermediary application apparatus  130 . An e-mail may be sent to sales representative  190  to notify her of initial response communication  180  sent to consumer  110 . 
         [0029]    In some embodiments, a copy of the initial response communication  180  may be sent to contact management system  140 . Or, contact management system  140  may be sent details from the initial response communication  180  embedded in the modified sales lead  170 B. The contact management system  140  may then associate the consumer contact alias with the copy of initial response communication  180  and stores them in a file or folder. In some cases, contact information of sales representative  190  may not be available. In such cases, initial response communication  180  may provide a sales contact alias that does not point to sales representative  190 , but may point to, for example, a company e-mail for inquiries 
         [0030]    Consumer  110  may subsequently contact the company or sales representative  190  using the sales contact alias. Such subsequent communication is routed via intermediary application apparatus  130 . As such, a closed-loop of communication may be created wherein communication between consumer  110  and sales representative  190  communicate via contact aliases through intermediary application system  130 . Communications between consumer  110  and sales representative  190  may continue until a sale is closed. In the event of a closed sale, data management system  160  notifies intermediary application system  130  of a closed sale. Alternatively, consumer  110  may notify sales representative  190  of a closed sale, and follow-up communications may be terminated. 
         [0031]    The initial response communication  180  allows for detailed and specific answers to be sent to consumer  110 . For example, initial response communication  180  may be a response to sales lead  170 A where consumer  110  makes a price quote request. In order to provide a comprehensive response to a request as complex as a price quote, initial response communication  180  may incorporate information from several sources, including but not limited to intermediary application system  130 , data management system  160  and data feeds  150 . The contents of initial response communication  180  will be discussed in the context of generating an automated price quote for a vehicle in  FIGS. 5-9 . 
         [0032]      FIG. 2  shows an embodiment of intermediary application system  130 . The intermediary application system  130  includes in this embodiment at least a lead receiver  210 , a database  220 , a communications manager  230 , a monitoring system  250 , a business rules engine  240 , an administrative tools module  260 , a data extraction module  270 , and a reporting and analytics module  280 . 
         [0033]    When the intermediary application apparatus  130  receives a sales lead  170 A it is processed by lead receiver  210 . A sales lead  170 A may be received by a “push” approach  125 A where the apparatus receives the sales lead, or a “pull” approach  125 B where the apparatus obtains the lead after pursuing a potential consumer  110 . Lead receiver  210  may be a lead parser that identifies or separates contact information from the sales lead  170 A. Lead receiver  210  checks the sales lead  170 A to ensure that all the necessary information is included to generate a complete sales lead record. If all data is not present for the record, then the receipt of the incomplete lead is logged and/or an alert is produced. Lead receiver  210  may then check another sales lead. Lead receiver  210  creates entries in the database  220  to store the consumer information and associate the consumer contact information with a consumer contact alias. The lead receiver may also associate other information, such as the consumer&#39;s name, with an alias. The process by which the lead receiver  210  associates an alias to contact information in the sales lead is shown in  FIG. 4 . 
         [0034]    The database  220  stores information relating to the other components in the intermediary application apparatus  130  and may accept inputs from at least a contact management system  140 , a company&#39;s data management system  160 , and data feeds  150  from third parties outside the architecture  100 . In some embodiments, database  220  is a central repository with data related to several companies that make use of an intermediary application system  130 . In some embodiments, the intermediary application system  130  may store data relating to potential consumers relating to one company only. Consumer information such as consumer name, demographic information, and contact information may be stored in database  220 . Business rules, or criteria set by a company to govern communications, may also be stored in the database  220 . The database may be a single standalone database or a distributed database stored across multiple database servers. 
         [0035]    The communication manager  230  is responsible for tracking communication in the database  220  and initiating automatic action on behalf of the company. The communication manager allows for light integration with any contact management system  140 . Light integration may occur with contact management system  140  as a result of the aliasing methodology discussed earlier wherein contact information is associated with contact aliases. In one embodiment, light integration is also advanced by embedding details of initial response communication  180  in modified sales lead  170 B. Similarly, light integration may be made with lead source system  120  as a result of standard e-mail and lead exchange formats. 
         [0036]    The communication manager  230  transmits the consumer contact alias to contact management system  140 . When a contact management request  175  is received, the communication manager  230  maps between the consumer contact alias and the consumer contact information in database  220 . In some embodiments, other information may be aliased and stored in database  220 . A communication is generated and sent to consumer  110 . Communication manager  230  may include various components, such as an e-mail component having access to a SMTP server, to facilitate generating and sending communications. The communication manager  230  generates a log of communication activity in the database  220 . This information may include the date and time telephoned or e-mailed, which contact information was used, and whether consumer  110  responded to the communication. As such, the communication manager  230  is capable of reporting to the database with respect to sales lead  170 A. 
         [0037]    In some embodiments, the intermediary application system  130  may automatically initiate action such as a communication on behalf of a company based on one or more business rules. Business rules may be general in nature, for example, a rule to follow-up after a lead has been inactive for thirty days. Business rules may be specific to a particular company for example, Company X providing a special pricing to a consumer  110  who is a member of a local charity group, wherein members of that local charity group qualify for the special pricing. When automatically initiating action, the intermediary application system  130  may make use of at least an administrative tools module  260 , a monitoring system  250 , and a business rules engine  240 . 
         [0038]    For instance, a business rule defined in the administrative tools module  260  may have criteria stating that an automatic follow-up communication must be performed when the consumer  110  has not been contacted for thirty days. If monitoring system  250  determines that the criteria for the business rule has been met, the business rules engine  240  composes an appropriate message to the consumer  110 . The business rules engine  240  may also determine the necessary elements, such as company graphics, to accompany the message. An appropriate message may be “You expressed interest in our product 30 days ago. We have not been in contact in awhile. Are you still interested?” The business rules engine  240  may then dictate that a copy of this communication is sent to the contact management system  140 . If the consumer responds to the message, the communication manager  230  generates an activity log of this communication and, based on business rules, send the message to the contact management system  140  where the sales representative  190  would typically initiate further communication, as shown in  FIG. 1 . 
         [0039]    The administrative tools module  260  allows for input into the database  220 . This input may include business rules, other activity relating to sales leads pertaining to the company, and input related to managing company-specific templates used to govern automatic execution of actions. These inputs may be manually entered, selected from a generic list as previously stored in database  220 , or a combination of both. A business rule may be defined by the company or an entity authorized by the company, for example a manufacturer or intermediary application system  130  owner. 
         [0040]    The monitoring system  250  checks the database  220  to determine when an automatic communication must be sent on behalf of the company. The monitoring system  250  checks the database for reports from the communication manager  230 . It compares a report from the communications manager  230  with the corresponding business rule defined by the administrative module to ascertain whether the business rule has been met. 
         [0041]    The business rules engine  240  determines the action to be taken on the sales lead  170 A based on the findings of the monitoring system  250 . The business rules engine  240  then engages the communication manager  230  to fulfill the communication. 
         [0042]    The reporting and analytics module  280  generates external reports such as those related to company performance, company benchmarking, and other market analytics. Reporting and analytics module  280  is used to evaluate effectiveness of the intermediary application apparatus  130  and generates such reports for the purpose of continuous system improvement and updates to financial systems. Reporting and analytics module  280  may make use of business rules to determine effectiveness and as such may also include data extraction module  270 . Data extraction module  270  retrieves information from database  220 , applies a transformation to the data according to at least one business rule, and stores the transformed data in the reporting database of database  220 . This transformed data is accessed by reporting and analytics module  280  when generating reports. 
         [0043]      FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary method of tracking a sales lead according to an embodiment of the invention. In  310 , the sales lead  170 A containing consumer contact information is received from consumer  110 . In  320 , the contact information in the sales lead is associated with a consumer contact alias. A modified sales lead  170 B is generated with the consumer contact alias or aliases embedded therein. The modified sales lead  170 B is sent to contact management system  140 . In  330 , a contact management request  175  may be received by communication manager  230 . In some embodiments, the contact management request  175  may be sent from the contact management system  140 . The communication response may contain the contact information of a sales representative  190 . In  340 , the consumer contact alias and other associated aliases may be mapped to the consumer contact information and other information. In  350 , the contact information of sales representative  190  is associated with a sales contact alias. In  360 , a communication is sent to consumer  110 . Sending the communication  360  may entail composing or selecting an appropriate template for a message, incorporating the sales contact alias into the message, transmitting the communication, and logging an event in database  220 . In some embodiments, performance of communication  360  may entail logging the communication as an event in database  220  and tracking it in  360 . Likewise, other events may include sending a confirmation e-mail, updating a counter, or the like. 
         [0044]      FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary method by which trackable consumer contact aliases are created by lead receiver  210 . When sales lead  170 A is received by lead receiver  210 , it may parse and extract the consumer&#39;s contact information. Lead receiver  210  makes a unique lead insertion into a lead table  410  in the database  220  and assigns sales lead  170 A a lead ID  411 . The lead table may store an unlimited amount of consumer contact information and other information,  412 . Lead ID  411  is used to generate an entry into an alias table  420  in database  220 . The alias table  420  assigns a unique alias to the consumer&#39;s e-mail and telephone, thus creating modified sales lead  170 B. The generation protocol of aliases for e-mail or telephone information may be established either by a component of the intermediary application apparatus or via a third party outside the intermediary application apparatus. When the communications manager  230  receives a request from the contact management system  140 , it maps between lead table  410  and the alias table  420 , thus sending the consumer contact alias instead of the actual contact information. Similarly, the sales contact alias may also be created when contact management request  175  is received by communications manager  230 . Communications manager  230  may then parse the lead for at least the contact information of sales representative  190  and make an insertion in lead table  410 , thereby repeating the process described above. Communications manager  230  may generate an activity log in the database  220  indicating that a follow-up event has occurred. 
         [0045]    The systems and methods described above may be used in any situation where an in-depth response to sales lead  170 A may be helpful. An example of such an in-depth response, as mentioned before, is generating a price quote for a product such as a good or a service. Such in-depth responses can find applicability in issuing or generating quotes for mortgages, real estate, or the like. In the embodiment discussed herein, the systems and methods are used in the context of the automotive business for generating a vehicle price quote (initial response communication  180 ) in response to a price quote request (sales lead  170 A).  FIG. 5  illustrates a component of intermediary application system  130 , the automated vehicle price quote engine  500 . The automated vehicle price quote engine  500  may be used to automatically issue an initial response communication  180  based on sales lead  170 A. Automated issuance of a vehicle price quote may provide a vehicle dealer or dealership with more pricing flexibility, greater accuracy, and significant time savings.  FIG. 6  illustrates an exemplary method by which a vehicle price quote may be automatically issued.  FIGS. 7-9  illustrate further capabilities of vehicle price quote engine  500 . 
         [0046]    The automated vehicle price quote may involve identifying the following based on the vehicle specified in sales lead  170 A:
       What vehicles are available, in the geographical region from where the lead was originated or at a nearby vehicle dealership, that would satisfy the request in sales lead  170 A.   What features and options are equipped on the vehicles to be quoted.   Whether the vehicles being quoted qualify the consumer for manufacture incentives such as cashback rebates, special financing options, and/or special lease rates.   What vehicle price quote will be communicated by the dealership in the vehicle price quote, and calculating that price quote.   On behalf of which sales representative at a dealership the vehicle price quote will be issued.
 
Information relating to the above factors may be preexisting in the intermediary application system  130  or provided by various third-party sources.
       
 
         [0052]      FIG. 5  shows an embodiment of automated vehicle price quote engine  500  wherein the information is collected, processed, and stored in databases  510 A- 510 G. In some embodiments, the information may be stored in database  220  in one database or a series of databases as discussed in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0053]    Vehicle mappings database  510 A contains the translations of vehicle representation understood by the automated vehicle price quote engine  500 . For example, if the automated vehicle price quote engine  500  understands a vehicle to be a 2009 Toyota Corolla LE 4-Door Sedan and the supplier of a vehicle price quote request destined for a given dealership understands the same vehicle as a 2009 Toyota Corolla LE 4-dr SDN; then, a translation from one representation to another may take place: 
         [0054]    2009 Toyota Corolla LE 4-dr SDN=2009 Toyota Corolla LE 4-Door Sedan 
         [0000]    This mapping is conducted by matching engine  520 . Once this mapping has taken place, an incoming request may automatically be matched to vehicles available at the dealership or within the geographical region. In some embodiments, new vehicle mappings may be added to vehicle mappings database  510 A to create a repository of various translations corresponding to a particular vehicle. This process is exemplified in  FIG. 9 . 
         [0055]    Vehicle configurations database  510 B is a repository that stores information relating to various specification information such as combinations of options/features built by the vehicle&#39;s manufacturer. The configurations may be stored in the form of specific vehicles as uniquely identified by their VIN number or vehicle configurations that are available at a given dealership or across multiple dealerships. For a given combination of “Year, Make, Model” or “Year, Make, Model, Trim,” this database may contain multiple vehicle configurations. Some or all of these configurations may be presented in the automated vehicle price quote response. In some embodiments, new configurations may be added to vehicle configurations database  510 B due to the use of automated vehicle price quote engine  500 . This process is exemplified in  FIG. 7 . 
         [0056]    Dealer pricing rules database  510 E contains the rules and the pricing values by which the dealer arrives at the final price of a given vehicle. These rules are stored in advance of an incoming vehicle price quote request. Examples of sophisticated pricing and the application of such rules in providing an automated quote are described in  FIG. 8 . 
         [0057]    Communication template database  510 G is stored in advance of the issuance of an automated vehicle price quote. The template may contain information layout, copy, graphics or the like that-may be used at the time a vehicle price quote request has been issued. The communication method used to inform the recipient of a vehicle price quote may be e-mail, webpage, text message, mobile communication and other forms of communication commonly used in the art. 
         [0058]    In some embodiments, other databases may be used in conjunction with those discussed above. 
         [0059]    Vehicle information database  510 C may describe a given vehicle or compare it to other vehicles. The information in  510 C provides consumer  110  of the vehicle price quote with the vehicle&#39;s description as well as the descriptions of the options, features, and equipment contained on the quoted vehicles. Vehicle information database  510 C may be provided a third-party company. 
         [0060]    Dealer&#39;s vehicle inventory feed database  510 D contains the list of vehicles both new and used currently at a given dealership&#39;s location along with information that may be obtained by decoding the vehicle identification number (VIN) number associated with each vehicle. This database is used to provide information relating to actual new and used vehicles on the dealer&#39;s lot that may match a purchase interest. In some embodiments, comparable used vehicle alternatives that match the new vehicle equivalent based on inventor&#39;s algorithms may be presented. 
         [0061]    Manufacturer incentive database  51 OF contains vehicle manufacturer incentives offered directly to consumer  110 . These incentives may include cash back rebates, special financing rates, or special lease rates to influence a consumer&#39;s purchase decision. 
         [0062]      FIG. 6  illustrates an exemplary method by which the automated issuance of a vehicle price quote is created. 
         [0063]    In  605 , a request for an automated vehicle price quote, such as sales lead  170 A from consumer  110 , is received and analyzed. Consumer  110  provides specification information, such as make, model, and trim of the vehicle to assist in determination of the vehicle. The vehicle for which a price quote is being requested is determined. 
         [0064]    In  615 , the request is compared with the vehicles contained in Vehicle Mappings Database  510 A. The requested vehicle is automatically mapped to one that is understood by the automated vehicle price quote engine. If a match occurs, the preparation for a vehicle price quote begins in  625 . 
         [0065]    In  635 , the automated vehicle price quote engine  500  determines which vehicle configuration or configurations will be quoted as determined in advance either by the dealership or a preprogrammed selection algorithm. 
         [0066]    In  645 , the automated vehicle price quote engine obtains the description of the vehicles and options descriptions from the vehicle information database  510 C in order to present this information in the communication to consumer  110 . 
         [0067]    In  655 , the automated vehicle price quote engine obtains vehicle inventory from the Dealer&#39;s Vehicle Inventory Feed Database  510 D. 
         [0068]    In  665 , the dealer&#39;s pricing rules are applied by the automated vehicle price quote engine  500 . The pricing rules may contain absolute selling price, pricing relative to the vehicle&#39;s MSRP, or pricing relative to the dealer&#39;s invoice price. Dealer invoice pricing may be obtained from the dealership in absolute fashion or through a formulaic calculation. Dealer&#39;s pricing rules are further discussed in  FIG. 8 . 
         [0069]    In  675 , consumer incentive information is accessed from the Manufacture Incentive Database  510 F and applied to the final price quote. This information may include but is not limited to cash back rebates, special financing rates, or special lease rates. 
         [0070]    In  685 , if the dealership desires the vehicle price quote response to come on behalf of a specific assigned individual at the dealership such as sales representative  190 , the automated vehicle price quote engine  500  may obtain this information from a contact management system  140  such as the dealership&#39;s internet lead management (ILM) or customer relationship management (CRM) software as explained in Sections &lt;0022&gt; and &lt;0023&gt; above. The contact management system  140  may be a company&#39;s ILM/CRM system. The automated vehicle price quote engine  500  may inform dealership personnel as to which vehicles were identified in initial response communications  180 , and what the corresponding price quotes were. 
         [0071]    The automated vehicle price quote engine sends the Internet lead/quote request into the dealership&#39;s ILM/CRM after having modified the lead/quote request to specify the vehicles and their corresponding price quotes that will be communicated to the vehicle shopper. 
         [0072]    In  695 , an initial response communication  180  for the vehicle price quote is generated and sent by selecting a template from the Communication Template Database  510 G. The information for the vehicle price quote is incorporated into the template dynamically to produce the desired vehicle price quote communication. The communication may be issued via e-mail, web, SMS, text, mobile communication and others known in the art. 
         [0073]      FIGS. 7-9  illustrate further embodiments of elements discussed in  FIGS. 5 and 6 .  FIG. 7  illustrates the use of vehicle price quoting in determining regional vehicle configuration availability.  FIG. 8  illustrates the application of a particular sophisticated pricing rule.  FIG. 9  illustrates a method by which vehicle mapping may be conducted. 
         [0074]      FIG. 7  illustrates the use of vehicle price quote engine to create a database with a regional view of available vehicle configurations. While it is possible for a vehicle shopper to specify a desired vehicle configuration, the vehicle&#39;s manufacturer may not have built such a configuration. Understanding the availability of vehicle configurations for a given region may be useful in automating the generation of a vehicle price quote. By providing a follow-up price quote tool as presented in this application, many sales representatives  190  at many dealerships of the same manufacturer in a geographical region may frequently issue quotes to consumers on vehicles a sales representative  190  has confirmed are available in the region. 
         [0075]    In some embodiments, a dealership&#39;s sales representative  190  may request the issue of a vehicle price quote. The sales representative  190  may select an existing vehicle configuration contained in the vehicle configurations database  510 B or create a new vehicle configuration as part of the request to issue an automated vehicle price quote. Alternatively sales representative  190  may perform a regional vehicle search using a tool such as a manufacture provided regional vehicle locator  710  prior to creating a vehicle configuration to be quoted. The manufacture-provided regional vehicle locator  710  shows sales representative  190  the inventory of vehicles available across all the dealerships within the region. Upon locating a vehicle in the region, sales representative  190  may input this vehicle configuration into the automated vehicle price quote engine. When sales representative  190  provides the vehicle configuration and requests the issuance of a vehicle price quote, this vehicle configuration is passed along to the automated vehicle price quote engine  500  and stored within vehicle configurations database  510 B. 
         [0076]    In some embodiments, a feedback mechanism is implemented from the issuance of vehicle price quotes by multiple sales representatives  190  at multiple dealerships in a given region. The vehicle configurations database  510 B may approximate the vehicle configurations available in a given region as-in the manufacture provided regional vehicle locator. The matching algorithm as executed by matching engine  520  may be improved over time providing a better match for an internet lead initiated vehicle price quote request either automatically or via manual input. 
         [0077]      FIG. 8  illustrates an embodiment of the automated vehicle price quote engine  500  that allows sophisticated pricing decisions to be easily and readily implemented. A dealership may provide sophisticated pricing rules to a vehicle shopper such as consumer  110 . These rules may be stored in database  510 E, or the rules may be stored as business rules in database  220 . An exemplary sophisticated pricing rule may be to offer special vehicle pricing based on the source of the vehicle price quote request, such as the American Automobile Association website. A sophisticated pricing rule may have strategic and practical applications for a dealership. An example may be to issue a price quote based on the vehicle shopper&#39;s zip code contained in the vehicle price quote request. By issuing a lower pricing, a dealership may entice a shopper to drive a greater distance to do business with the dealership. 
         [0078]    A sophisticated pricing rule may be based on a vehicle shopper&#39;s past profitability or perceived future profitability. The automated vehicle price quote engine may provide the mechanism to issue vehicle price quote incorporating the concept of consumer profitability. For example, if consumer  110  purchased a vehicle and had it serviced regularly by a dealership, consumer  110  would be considered more profitable than a consumer who did not purchase or service her vehicle at the dealership. If consumer  110  purchases her next vehicle from the same dealership, consumer  110  may continue to be a profitable consumer. By offering a lower price quote to consumer  110 , the dealership may encourage this profitable consumer to purchase from the same. Likewise, previous consumers may be analyzed to determine profitability by obtaining sales and service information from a dealership database, such as service history database  810 A or consumer sales database  810 B as pictured in  FIG. 8 . In some embodiments, the profitability of a dealership consumer may be determined via a profitability analyzer  820  and stored in a profitability database  830 . Profitability database  830  may store information relating to consumer profitability in the form of profitability indices. For example, a profitability index may be a rating based on a numeric scale incremented from 1 to 4, with 1 as the least profitable and 4 as the most profitable. This index may be accessible to the automated vehicle price quote engine  500 , which in turn may access the dealer pricing rules database  510 E to associate a percentage discount with each rating. 
         [0079]    In some embodiments, consumer  110  submits a request for an automated vehicle price quote to a dealership providing automated vehicle price quotes based on consumer profitability. The automated vehicle price quote engine  500  queries the profitability database  830  for to determine if consumer  110  is present in the profitability database. In this example, the query returns a match with a high level of profitability for consumer  110 . The dealer pricing rules database may be checked and the pricing discount applied to the vehicle price quote provided to consumer  110 . The vehicle price quote is issued containing the applied discount based on consumer profitability. 
         [0080]      FIG. 9  illustrates an exemplary method by which vehicle mapping may be conducted on a vehicle price quote request as received in  910 . As discussed earlier, a vehicle price quote request, such as sales lead  170 A, contains a representation of a vehicle for which a quote is desired. In  920 , the automated vehicle price quote engine  500  is accessed to determine if the vehicle can be identified from the representation made in the vehicle price quote request. If the vehicle can be identified, a translation exists for the vehicle specified in the price quote request in the vehicle mappings database  510 A. The requested vehicle is automatically matched to the translation, the appropriate vehicle configurations are selected from  510 B, and a price quote is generated in  935 . If the vehicle cannot be identified, the vehicle mappings database  510 A does not include a translation for the specified vehicle, and the lead information is used to manually translate in  930 . The price quote is then generated in  935 . The manual translation may involve a user of intermediary application system  130  evaluating the vehicle information contained in the lead and selecting the corresponding translation understood by the automated vehicle price quote engine  500 . In one embodiment, the map may be written to the vehicle mappings database  510 A such that automated matching may occur. In optional  940 , automatic matching may occur after manual translation has occurred for the same vehicle a number of times. This translation may be written to the vehicle mappings database  510 A in  950 . As such, the manual process may be used to teach the automated vehicle price quote engine to identify vehicles based on representations in sales lead  170 A, and use the correct translations without the use of manual mapping. 
         [0081]    The systems and methods described above have been described with the use of illustrative examples. It is apparent that obvious modifications may be made and still be within the scope of the invention. For example, there may be a situation where a consumer  110  may wishes to track communication or automatically communicate with one or more sellers. In this scenario, a company may provide contact information to the consumer using an intermediary application system  130 . Multiple contact aliases may be assigned to a contact information. For example, an e-mail address may be assigned multiple aliases, and each alias may be sent to a different sales representative. By tracking the alias using intermediary application system  130 , it would be possible to gauge each sales representative&#39;s success at closing a sale. Initial response communication  180  may also be customized to facilitate targeted marketing. For example, a consumer  110  may be profiled using various services known in the art. Such profiles may be, for example a cost-conscious consumer  110  or a feature-driven consumer  110 . By profiling consumer  110 , a message may be sent in initial response communication  180  that may offer discounts, attractive photographs of features, etc. in order to encourage consumer  110  to purchase the product. These and other modifications are intended to be covered in the scope of the present application.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6