Centralized BDC Across Larger Number of Stores

[ddavis]

I was talking with a COO of a fairly large group. Until recently, he was a VP of an even larger group. While with this group, he installed a centralized BDC operation for forty something stores. They plan to build a BDC for the entire group of well over a hundred stores.

My vision is for a store staffed with quality people that are all involved with the internet. I'm convinced that BDC operations are most effective where stores have a large number of poorly trained salespeople, with high turnover and where salespeople are not made accountable for their daily production (emails and phone calls).

 

[mcampo2501]

I think a BDC is also valuable in an environment where you have a small number of long tenured professional salesmen. By letting the BDC develop new business, they are able to maintain relationships with current clients and spend undivided attention to the person/people in front of them. My vision would be to get dealerships to the point where people didn't walk in without an appointment.

 

[ddavis]

I think a BDC is also valuable in an environment where you have a small number of long tenured professional salesmen. By letting the BDC develop new business, they are able to maintain relationships with current clients and spend undivided attention to the person/people in front of them. My vision would be to get dealerships to the point where people didn't walk in without an appointment.

Mike, I have been in stores where every salesperson is far above average. Most often, you see it in the luxury lines. I have seen it in volume stores but it is more difficult to accomplish. I visited a Toyota store where the average salesperson was selling 20 cars. They knew that this is costing them business but are very reluctant to hire people that could damage their culture. They lead the market, have won every award and have a nearly perfect CSI and great reviews.

 

[JoeyD]

We have a centralized BDC at our three store group -- in the beginning it was a tad bit rough with everyone getting accustomed to it, but now it's on its way to success. You have to make sure the BDC personnel have a complete understanding of pricing, because reaching a manager in another store via phone can sometimes be a daunting task. We are still definitely in our development phase of this BDC but it has a good future in store as we go along.

 

[ddavis]

We have a centralized BDC at our three store group -- in the beginning it was a tad bit rough with everyone getting accustomed to it, but now it's on its way to success. You have to make sure the BDC personnel have a complete understanding of pricing, because reaching a manager in another store via phone can sometimes be a daunting task. We are still definitely in our development phase of this BDC but it has a good future in store as we go along.

Joey, thanks for contributing.

I don't think anyone will deny the relationship of phone calls to appointments and sales. If you have cradle to grave salespeople how many sales calls are they required to make?

I am always hearing that dealerships want salespeople in front of customers and they don't have time to make a large number of calls. Consider the number of working days in the month and the number of sales the average salesperson makes. How many calls should these people be making? I have a number in mind. I had 12 ISMs. When you take that number times the number of ISMs, that is a lot of calls. How many calls before you totally piss off your clientele?

 

[JoeyD]

Joey, thanks for contributing.

I don't think anyone will deny the relationship of phone calls to appointments and sales. If you have cradle to grave salespeople how many sales calls are they required to make?

I am always hearing that dealerships want salespeople in front of customers and they don't have time to make a large number of calls. Consider the number of working days in the month and the number of sales the average salesperson makes. How many calls should these people be making? I have a number in mind. I had 12 ISMs. When you take that number times the number of ISMs, that is a lot of calls. How many calls before you totally piss off your clientele?

Doug,

That was part of the reason to start a BDC here, it had been attempted in the past to have 1 person dedicated to Internet leads but the phone calls were still going to the salespeople. This created an issue because it took credibility from the Internet guy because unless he investigated every single lead (this was me, so I actually did) and talked to the sales person or sales manager involved with the deal, you'd be out the metrics for that customer. With the BDC they now determine the source so we have a better method of tracking all phone and Internet leads. But after a customer comes in, it becomes the salesperson's responsibility, but myself personally I can't say I agree with that, because what if the sales team did something wrong that upset the customer? But back on topic, from my experience it seems that every customer in a salespersons roster is called on a rotation of every week to two weeks for the veterans.

But calling the same customer every day, does get them upset. I've seen people call back just to be removed, mostly because they didn't know they were contacting so many dealers in the first place with an online lead... so if every dealer calls back every day for a week, you've got over 15 calls a week to a customer... has to be aggravating - I know it'd pi*s me off, but I'm sure there's a fine line out there but with Einstein dead, it'll probably be a very long time until we get an answer...

 

[ddavis]

Joey, do you have phone tracking software like call measurement? Do you have separate phone numbers for each lead source?

 

[JoeyD]

We recently signed up with a third party for call tracking. It's fairly inexpensive and does a great job and has multi level reporting. So far, we have got this system in place for our in house SEM campaign, email blasts, print ads, and service. It's helped tremendously. But our provider is CallRail, and although they are not automotive themed, they are great. You can have instant phone numbers (local or toll free), add whisper messages and custom greetings. I think you can do voicemail as well for those afterhour calls.