Are Biz Rules Really Necessary for open deals?

[Alex Snyder]

This is why BDC should be in house physically at your dealership. Outsourcing BDC or chat to a third party that you haven't trained inhouse makes no sense to me. They don't know your inventory, can't answer any questions and bug the crap out of people with their mandates for x number of contacts with the potential client. Results is what we're all looking for and a trained in house staff does a much better job in my experience.

With a scalable process that is repeatable and consistently trained in the dealership, I would agree with you. If the in-house BDC investment were rock solid year over year and not impacted by outside market forces, I too would agree with you. If the BDC were capable of each agent making more than 12 calls per hour, I would still agree with you.

However, I don't agree with you. And this is coming from a guy who ran BDCs in his dealer group firmly under the belief system you stated.

In hindsight, I was not able to ensure a BDC process that burned the phone lines at the capacity the investment required. I struggled to keep good people motivated. And many of the candidates I was given were failed salespeople who management thought were good people. I ran a department like this for 6 years. I wouldn't do it again.

The model I wish I had: Outsource the mundane and feed my BEST people with the customers the outsourced call center engages on my behalf. The call center and I will work together to refine the talk tracks and process that makes things as smooth as possible for my customers.

 

[rickyfay]

With a scalable process that is repeatable and consistently trained in the dealership, I would agree with you. If the in-house BDC investment were rock solid year over year and not impacted by outside market forces, I too would agree with you. If the BDC were capable of each agent making more than 12 calls per hour, I would still agree with you.

However, I don't agree with you. And this is coming from a guy who ran BDCs in his dealer group firmly under the belief system you stated.

In hindsight, I was not able to ensure a BDC process that burned the phone lines at the capacity the investment required. I struggled to keep good people motivated. And many of the candidates I was given were failed salespeople who management thought were good people. I ran a department like this for 6 years. I wouldn't do it again.

The model I wish I had: Outsource the mundane and feed my BEST people with the customers the outsourced call center engages on my behalf. The call center and I will work together to refine the talk tracks and process that makes things as smooth as possible for my customers.

I was the sole used car BDC rep while also taking all the pics, managing the vendors, tracking the used cars through service and detail and fixing small things like broken mirror glass etc... for nine years at a Ford dealership. We sold 60 cars a month and carried 70. Average used car leads per month was in the 120 range of which 75 were actual people with a job that were old enough to buy a car. Of the 75 we sold 15 a month. It just takes the right people in your BDC.

 

[Alex Snyder]

I was the sole used car BDC rep while also taking all the pics, managing the vendors, tracking the used cars through service and detail and fixing small things like broken mirror glass etc... for nine years at a Ford dealership. We sold 60 cars a month and carried 70. Average used car leads per month was in the 120 range of which 75 were actual people with a job that were old enough to buy a car. Of the 75 we sold 15 a month. It just takes the right people in your BDC.

It is a totally different game when you need to scale things. Groups have different needs and capabilities. The hardest job of any entrepreneur is finding the right butts to put in the right seats at the right time.

 

[rickyfay]

Each location should stand on it's own. It's the only way to ensure employees take ownership.