Do you have a BDC or are planning to add one?

[Alex Snyder]

I'm curious as to how many DealerRefresh dealers are working with a BDC of some sort. I'd also like to make this a thread where BDC questions are asked and answered.

I personally think a BDC is a necessity in dealer groups with 3 or more stores.

[Ryan Thompson]

I'm curious as to how many DealerRefresh dealers are working with a BDC of some sort. I'd also like to make this a thread where BDC questions are asked and answered.

I personally think a BDC is a necessity in dealer groups with 3 or more stores.

Alex,

I would be curious to know this as well. The dealers in my network are realizing that they are not properly handling leads/booking appointments. The problem is a lot do not even know where to start.

[Nick_Lozovsky]

Whether to have a BDC or not depends on your internet lead volume. An outsourced BDC or receptionist should make the first call for small dealerships that generate less than 100 leads. Medium volume dealerships with between 101 and 500 internet leads can have either a BDC or internet department sales assistant initiate the first call. Large volume dealerships with more than 500 internet leads will need an internal BDC to make the first call. Internet sales reps make all follow-up calls.

[John O'Connell]

I am in the process of making a proposal for a BDC of some sort and have spoken with a handful of vendors looking for information to build our case. My questions are the following
1. What is acceptable conversion rate thru google ad words looking for industry average 1 3 5 7%
2. What is the lifetime value of a customer from within your ASA
3. What are acceptable conversion rates for general advertising

[DanMorgan]

I guess it depends on how strong the BDC reps are but, here are my thoughts......

We do not have a BDC here at my store. I get majority of leads but they get parsed out to a few other salespeople to work. It works great because Imagiclab has the email temps automatically going out so all I have to do is make phone calls or answer emails. Luckily my GSM doesn't want a BDC and here's why....

I am apart of a large dealer group and our new E-commerce director (who implemented Imagiclab) has put in a BDC at a few of our other stores. We also have another Lexus store 20 mins away. So it's nice for inventory.

The BDC at the other Lexus store started a few weeks ago. My main example here is from last week. So an internet customer from our other stores PMA had gone in and test driven a new car. She was test driven by one of the BDC associates but she was assigned to one of the salespeople at the store. They were putting her though the steps but they said in the client notes that her numbers were very low to where invoice is. So I then get a lead from her and I set her up to come in earlier in the day (when I knew she had an appt at our other store later that night.) She brings one of her 2 trades with her, we appraise one site unseen and close her down AND MADE GROSS WELL OVER INVOICE! Later that day after everythings done, the manager over there calls over cussing us out and then hangs up....We really did want to say "sorry you didn't F*%king close her"

So I guess this can go both ways really to either have a BDC or not. If you do have one, make sure your people are trained and have a good manager to make sure that easy opportunity doesn't walk out the door. If you don't have a BDC make sure you have a good tool like IML that automates emails and leaves the Salesperson with only having to make phone calls and reply to emails.

[Mitch Gallant]

Our CRM company has a call centre where we have a service and sales rep for follow up along with 2 internet apointment setters in house. I answered outsourced BDC...

[Katie]

I answered on behalf of the dealership that I worked for almost a year ago because I know they're still working with an in house BDC.

We did have an awesome business plan that we executed back in 2007 that enabled us to become an outsourced BDC and at one point we did BDC services for about 20 dealers all over the US. We had an automated dialer system that had us working leads for many Suzuki, Toyota, and Buy Here Pay Here dealers. It worked out very well, and Cathy Nuccio, the founder of Car-Appoint was brilliant. Unfortunately, when the market crashed, so did our business opportunity and it was soon history.

I would love nothing more than to see her embark on another journey in that direction. It was really a lucrative business and I learned a lot.

[Rob Fontano]

We have a BDC or Internet Sales Department in both stores. Each one has a team of coordinators that handle all incoming leads and calls as well as a designated sales manager within the room to work deals and T.O. calls and Chats real time.

[mikeelmore]

We are a single point franchise store and are in the early stages of implementing a BDC, and may of put the proverbial cart ahead of the horse as we have also made the change of CRM providers and learning the new tool (fun stuff, I tell ya'), with this happening simultaneously, I'd be interested in hearing and seeing some "best practices" from an established dealer?

[BigJoeIngram]

I started my Automotive career in the BDC - I ran 2 very large BDC's (20+ reps for sales and service combined) and one medium sized one (8 reps). They are a must have for dealerships that are forced to hire unqualified sales associates. The stores I worked for believed that if your sales people cant do what you expect them to do, then create another department to accomplish the task. I personally believe that your sales people should be professional enough to do their own follow up, their own prospecting, their own customer management, but finding that caliber of Sales Person is very rare.
I made a career out of building teams that filled a need of a department because the people originally hired to do a position failed to meet the requirements. Still today, I sell to dealerships an offsite call center to do every kind of follow up call or email to help them ensure that the customer experience is an excellent one. I think they are a necessity in an industry that requires feedback and follow up, and an outsourced BDC allows for a much less expensive alternative with all the upside potential of an in house.