A Realistic Pay-plan/salary amount for lead handlers?

[subi101]

Whatever you call them... Lead handlers, Internet Sales Specialists, Internet Consultants or whatever.

How do we pay the people who answer our leads and work our social media? They key is to make sure we're spending just the right amount to make sure we have quality people and don't have turn-over issues.

I do hourly pay, plus team based incentive (unit goals: 0-50 cars: $5/unit, 51-65: $7/unit, 66+: $10/unit - units are team goals to be hit but each individual gets paid on the total amount the team helps to sell), and a dealership franchice goals (an extra 250 per franchise goal hit by the entire dealership team)

This gives them 35-41k a year. I find this okay, not the best number but I'm starting out a team from scratch. A friend who is also hiring at a single point dealership has the same numbers, but is told that is incredibly high by industry standards. We are looking for facts, proof, or opinions to assess our pay plans.

Can anyone help us out by sharing their experiences or evidence?

 

[cmjerry4531]

What's their exact job? Do they just have to get people in the doors, and turn it over then? Do they actually go on test drives, and try sell the car? How many hours do they work a week?

 

[Matthew Danskin]

I may be old school but I think that having a big portion of their pay dependent on sales is best. While they are not the ones selling, they should be incentivized to get traffic in the door. Pay per appointment set and higher pay on appointment show. The end goal is to sell cars so they should take part in the profits from the sale as well. Finding an appropriate mix will allow your pay scale to ween out the under-performers.

 

[subi101]

They would be answering leads, doing follow-up, partaking in some light social media tasks, but most importantly ensuring appointment shows. We can structure the plan as we see fit, but what about an annual pay for this title? What is a realistic view of what is average to what is considered high?

 

[The.BDC.Experts]

Here is an example which may help:

*Hourly pay plan- above minimum wage. (this person will work hard) Call Volume...Call Volume...Call Volume...

*$3-$5 on every appt. which shows up. Monthly bonus or bi-Monthly bonus on this. (Make sure to have a process in place to capture this data) Nothing can discourage an appt. setter more, than traffic they call back, which came, but wasn't marked or handled properly, unfortunately capturing the floor isn't always 100%. Happens.

*Then if the appt. sells- use a sales (x) sales equation. If Andy brought 15 people in the door= 15x$5 per appt.= Bonus 1 and if 4 people sell- 4x4= Bonus 2

This pay plan puts the emphasis on where you need it most- TRAFFIC and this will also tear down the wall of the assumed high pressure to SELL a CAR when setting the initial appointment, but rather, the lead handler to sell the dealership and to SELL the customer on visiting. Why us? Why Now?

 

[The.BDC.Experts]

Also, be careful with paying on appts. set. This is how you will get bogus appts. quickly. To find out if you are having bogus appts. in the system, your show ratio from appts. set should be a minimum of 45%- bare minimum. If it is less than this, 1- you may some fib appts. 2- Make sure the appts. are being set with a specific time and date.

 

[mcampo2501]

I think between 30K-40K would be considered average (based on region). Anything under that and you'll have poor performance and high turn over. Anything over that would be condiered high for a BDC agent, however you should have high quality personel that remains loyal to you and works hard. My BDC staff gets paid 24K/yr plus bonus. My top guy will make as much in bonus as he does salary. Obviously this won't be the case for most, but allows them to have a reason to work hard.

 

[gmcdaniel]

I agree Mike you have to have quality people that will work hard for you day in and day out. If they don't get paid for their performance then you will have high turn over and then you're spending your whole day interviewing then training, meanwhile it disrupts your BDC flow.