What's the Fix?

“The $5,000 Button: Why Your Trade-In Form is Costing You Sales”

You’re Bleeding Profit and Don’t Even Know It

Dealerships spend tens of thousands of dollars to drive traffic to their website, yet most don’t give shoppers the one thing they desperately want: a clear path to value their trade.

Let’s get honest: your trade-in button is either (a) hidden in the navigation, (b) powered by a third-party widget with a 12-second load time, or (c) redirects shoppers away from your site altogether. Every one of those options is wrong, and it’s costing you real money.

Why It’s Called the “$5,000 Button”

A trade-in is the origin point of almost every deal. Shoppers don’t care about APR or rebate breakdowns if they don’t know what their current vehicle is worth. When that button is easy to find, easy to use, and delivers a soft number in 30 seconds or less, leads spike.

Most dealers ignore it. And that mistake costs the average rooftop $5,000+ in missed gross profit per month.

Where You’re Going Wrong
• Buried Navigation
“Value Your Trade” is four clicks deep? No one’s clicking. Shoppers want a button front-and-center. Hero section. First screen. No scroll.
• Off-Site Redirects
If your tool kicks users over to Black Book, Kelley Blue Book, or another third-party site, you’ve lost the lead. They’re not coming back.
• Dated Forms
Asking 14 fields of info before offering any value? That’s internet suicide. It should be Year, Make, Model, Miles, and Email. That’s it.

What Winning Dealers Do Instead
1. Make it visual.
Put the trade-in button right next to the search bar or inventory filter. Make it bold. Make it Google-colored if you want. But make it pop.
2. Give an instant range.
Use an in-house system or a private-label plugin. Don’t sell leads to 3rd parties. Deliver a trade range in 10 seconds flat.
3. Follow up with a human touch.
Once the lead’s in the CRM, don’t throw it into a drip campaign. Call the customer. Offer a number on their car today.

Here’s What Happens When You Fix It
• Trade-in leads rise by 38–55%
• Sales-to-lead conversion increases because shoppers start the conversation with equity
• You control the customer journey from start to finish

The trade-in is not a form, it’s a funnel. And it might be the most important lead capture tool on your website. If your vendor doesn’t get that, then you’re in the wrong relationship.