How to Send Leads to eLeads CRM

In most cases, sending leads to a CRM is pretty straight forward, relatively speaking. As long as the standardized requirements are met, the CRM will accept the lead and parse the data correctly. eLeads, however, is a different story. Not only is eLeads idiosyncratic and quite particular about how leads are sent to them, but they also have some special hoops you have to jump through before the leads can be handled properly.

ADF

As with most car dealership CRMs, eLeads requires that leads be sent in ADF. Your ADF should be the exclusive content of the message. Although I haven't tested it, let's assume that extra spaces and line breaks need to be avoided. Here's an example of a lead in ADF that works with eLead CRM.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?adf version="1.0"?>
<adf>
	<prospect>
		<requestdate>2015-05-04T13:03:02-05:00</requestdate>
		<vehicle>
			<year>2010</year>
			<make>Toyota</make>
			<model>Corolla</model>
		</vehicle>
		<customer>
			<contact>
				<name part="first">Dave</name>
				<name part="last">Tester</name>
				<email>[email protected]</email>
				<phone type="voice" time="nopreference">9876543210</phone>
			</contact>
			<comments>This is a test.</comments>
		</customer>
		<vendor>
			<vendorname>Meindl Motors</vendorname>
			<contact>
				<name part="full">Dave Meindl</name>
				<email>[email protected]</email>
			</contact>
		</vendor>
		<provider>
			<name part="full">Mudd Advertising</name>
			<service>SEM</service>
			<url><![CDATA[https://mudd.com]]></url>
		</provider>
	</prospect>
</adf>

Plain-Text / ASCII

The data should be sent as a plain-text, ASCII encoded email message. This is part of the ADF standard, but if your leads aren't being accepted, it's something to check.

The Email Subject

The subject of the email message must contain the name of the dealership.

Headers

I was testing a lead form that I built with PHP and was being lazy using PHP's mail() function. Anti-abuse headers were being sent. And apparently eLeads doesn't like them because the CRM wouldn't accept the leads.

X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - muddweb03.mudd.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - gmail.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [967 970] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - muddweb03.mudd.com

Reply-To:

Do not send the "reply-to" header. Sending the reply-to header will cause the lead to be rejected.

SMTP

The message must be sent using SMTP with SSL encryption.

Authorize the Sender and Add a Parsing Rule

Call eLead CRM support at (877) 859-0195. eLeads will need to add the "provider" as a new "source" in the dealer's CRM. You'll also need to have the sending email address (the value of the "From:" header) authorized for the dealership. Additionally, eLeads may need to create a "parsing rule", whatever that means. Could be the same thing as authorizing the sender. Who knows.

Other Considerations

I strip all non-numeric characters from phone numbers.