Those of you who have experience in BDC's: What sort of BDC setup have you found to work best for you? I have recently implemented a BDC in our dealership that is handling 300-350 leads per month with continued growth coming around the corner. I started off this endeavor specifically wanting to run a BDC very much like a call center environment where a BDR's sole job would be to generate traffic to the dealership.
However, I have recently been toying with the idea of running a hybrid BDC where I have specific reps who only focus on traffic generation, but in addition to this I would have BDR's who handle a lower volume of leads but work them cradle to the grave - or maybe don't get leads at all but work whatever appointments come out of the BDC while allowing the overflow of appointments to run onto the sales floor.
This idea is appealing to me because it grants me a greater amount of control over our customers and their outcomes. I love our sales team, and they are highly seasoned, but that has proven to be a double edged sword for me. Though many of them are on board with the changes and at times eager to learn it has been extremely difficult to teach these old dogs new tricks. I have a very "new school" perspective on things that is often at odds with the majority of the sales staff. I unfortunately find myself spending a good chunk of my day cleaning up after the mess that was created by the sales team from the previous day. The constant babysitting and hand holding that I have to do is extremely taxing on me. I am ready to get things done NOW and not have to wait God knows how long - if ever - before the sales staff learns the process and does what I'm needing them to do. I would much rather train a few new internet sales reps from the ground up and manage them out of the BDC.
I can't change the sales people, but what I can change is how I move forward with my team from here. I have management's attention though this will definitely be a harder sell as they are happy with the additional traffic being generated for the sales team. As far as I'm concerned I don't care about that. I only care about maximizing our opportunities and ensuring the process is followed properly in order to set ourselves up for continued success. And I can tell the path we are moving towards is definitely not doing that.
Hmm, that seemed like more of a rant than anything else, but your opinion's on the matter would be greatly appreciated. Do you find that hybrid BDC's synergize fairly well or is a BDC better off just having a single focus. An either/or kind of thing.
Thanks.
However, I have recently been toying with the idea of running a hybrid BDC where I have specific reps who only focus on traffic generation, but in addition to this I would have BDR's who handle a lower volume of leads but work them cradle to the grave - or maybe don't get leads at all but work whatever appointments come out of the BDC while allowing the overflow of appointments to run onto the sales floor.
This idea is appealing to me because it grants me a greater amount of control over our customers and their outcomes. I love our sales team, and they are highly seasoned, but that has proven to be a double edged sword for me. Though many of them are on board with the changes and at times eager to learn it has been extremely difficult to teach these old dogs new tricks. I have a very "new school" perspective on things that is often at odds with the majority of the sales staff. I unfortunately find myself spending a good chunk of my day cleaning up after the mess that was created by the sales team from the previous day. The constant babysitting and hand holding that I have to do is extremely taxing on me. I am ready to get things done NOW and not have to wait God knows how long - if ever - before the sales staff learns the process and does what I'm needing them to do. I would much rather train a few new internet sales reps from the ground up and manage them out of the BDC.
I can't change the sales people, but what I can change is how I move forward with my team from here. I have management's attention though this will definitely be a harder sell as they are happy with the additional traffic being generated for the sales team. As far as I'm concerned I don't care about that. I only care about maximizing our opportunities and ensuring the process is followed properly in order to set ourselves up for continued success. And I can tell the path we are moving towards is definitely not doing that.
Hmm, that seemed like more of a rant than anything else, but your opinion's on the matter would be greatly appreciated. Do you find that hybrid BDC's synergize fairly well or is a BDC better off just having a single focus. An either/or kind of thing.
Thanks.