Car finance case study · CarFinance2473,895 car finance leads. 114 appointments. £171,000 in pipeline. Over Christmas.
Results for a UK car finance broker over the quietest weeks of the year, from leads that 200 salespeople could not convert.
At a glance
- Client
- CarFinance247, a UK car finance broker
- Sector
- Car finance
- Problem
- Finance-approved leads marked as lost after two weeks of calls, texts and emails from the sales team
- What we did
- Personalised AI SMS to 3,895 lost leads, referencing the car each one applied for, then booked them back in with the sales team
- Result
- 1,292 replies (33.2%), 114 appointments, £171,000 pipeline
- Timeframe
- Mid-December 2025 to 12 January 2026, over Christmas and New Year
Seamless setup. No CRM changes. Live within a couple of weeks.
“Setterly helped us unlock additional value from a database of over 1,000,000 leads through AI-driven SMS outreach. The setup was seamless, with no changes required to our CRM, and we were live within a couple of weeks. The pilot quickly demonstrated the opportunity within our existing pipeline and gave us a clear framework for approaching lead reactivation at scale. We would recommend Setterly to any high-volume lead business looking to maximise the value of its pipeline and engage prospects more effectively.”
Leads 200 salespeople had already worked for 2 weeks.
CarFinance247 generates thousands of finance-approved leads every month. Each one is allocated to one of 200 salespeople, who call, text and email for up to two weeks. Some convert. Many don’t. After two weeks the lead is marked as lost and nobody touches it again.
These were not cold leads from a purchased list. Every one had applied for car finance, been approved and been allocated to a salesperson. They had genuine intent to buy a car. They just hadn’t converted through the normal sales process.
We loaded 3,895 of these unconverted leads in mid-December 2025, the worst possible timing: Christmas week, New Year and the quietest period in the automotive calendar, with the sales team on reduced hours.
The AI started personalised SMS conversations referencing the specific car each lead had applied for finance on. People who had ignored calls, texts and emails for two weeks started replying. By 12 January 2026, 1,292 had replied, a 33.2% reply rate on leads the sales team had already exhausted, and 114 had booked an appointment with the sales team.
Three reasons it stands out.
Already worked for 2 weeks
200 salespeople had called, texted and emailed them with no response. Setterly’s AI got 33.2% of them talking.
The quietest period of the year
Mid-December to mid-January, Christmas, New Year and bank holidays. The AI worked every single day, including Christmas Day.
114 appointments from lost leads
Buyers the business had completely given up on. Every one of those appointments is a sales opportunity that would otherwise have been zero.
They ignored the sales team. They answered Setterly.
What the sales team did
- Called multiple times over 2 weeks
- Sent text messages
- Sent emails
- Used the same approach for every lead
- Stopped after 2 weeks
What Setterly did
- Sent a personalised SMS referencing the exact car they applied for
- Asked a simple question: are you still looking?
- Followed up persistently over days, not all at once
- Handled objections conversationally, not with a script
- Ran 24/7 including evenings, weekends and bank holidays
The difference is timing, persistence and personalisation at a scale a sales team cannot match.
£171,000 in pipeline from one campaign.
£171,000 is pipeline, not closed revenue: 114 booked appointments x the £1,500 average sale value. Pipeline = appointments booked x the client's average order value.
CarFinance247 generates thousands of new leads every month. The leads that don’t convert in the first two weeks can enter the system automatically. At the same conversion rate, that’s over 100 additional appointments every month from leads the sales team could not close.
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