BDC Coordinator Commission

[yagoparamo]

First Yago, I must say your DR profile picture is not a very good representation of you. You're a much better looking man Yago. I usggest you update that photo immediately.

I don't know how that one got in there, it is in a church in Spain when Jr. was 2ish and I baptized him.

How do we know they can't buy a car until we put them through the process? I don't want BDC people playing the role of the finance manager. If somebody has a desire to come in and buy a car, I am going to bring them in.

You are correct, we don't know.. My point was that it is harder to find and train good sales people than BDC people, so use the BDC to gather more information about the customer and the deal instead of just pushing customer into the funnel (volume Vs. more information/quality lead).

This can be part of the phone script. We are not trying to qualify the customer over the phone. Sell the appointment over the phone and sell the car in person.

Correct, the phone script can be fine tuned (as you have taught for many years) to be very efficient. I believe that a person with an interest on the sale in mind will obtain more information and prepare better. A salesperson with all the info (trade, payoff, work status, insurance info, co-buyer, desired vehicle, color preferences, reason why buying the vehicle, credit status, etc) will be a more successful more times than a salesperson that just has an up shown up.

Then why have a BDC? Fire the salespeople and let the BDC staff become salespeople.

I wouldn't go as far but I would look for a better integration between them than having two separate departments. The better coordinated they are the better they will do.

Damn right you are!

Now you're just trying to make Heather like you! Why pay somebody 100K for a job when the market says you can hire somebody for less.

Heather is better off being herself than being me! I believe on providing unlimited potential to sales and management.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

We pay a base hourly, per show ($15), per sold ($25), and other bonuses tied to our goals. I've found that by paying more for the sold our reps get a little more invested in the process and follow up a little harder with those that leave without buying.

Bill, curious to what ways your reps become more "invested" in the sale? What actions from the reps result from it..?

Recognizing the latest shopping / buying behaviors (much less opportunity for be back sales), does it make sense for a BDC rep to be more invented in the sale or the show.

This thread is priceless.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Heather is better off being herself than being me! I believe on providing unlimited potential to sales and management.

I'll second Yago on this with a small caveat - there can be extremes so you need to recognize the balance while also recognizing the abilities of your team.

Why on earth would I get rid of a rockstar that's producing more than anyone else?

"Hold up a second Heather, I recognize that you're out-producing everyone on the average, but you're making way too much money, so we're going to cut your pay…"

At this point, I have a good idea what Heather's going to do.

Now I have to replace her? Good luck.

The reality is, it's not fair to big-box situations like this as they are very circumstantial.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Alex, I'm curious to how long you had that implemented?

It was started not long before I left to join Dealer.com, but it sounds like Christine still has it going...

our current pay plan is a combination of hourly rate, plus commission: $5/set, $15/show.

I'm usually not an advocate of reducing / taking away pay. As it seems to work short-term, having a quick boost in performance. I question the longevity. Causing burnout.

Where pay removal worked very well was in using it as a CSI payout. When I was selling cars we got an $800 bonus for our individual CSI score being above the marketplace average. When we were below we were knocked $800. That sure got us inline and well-motivated to make sure our own customers were saying nice things on those surveys.

In a BDC's case you do have the monotonous nature of the job that can burn people out regardless of pay. So, a negative element to the pay could have impacts far beyond the nature of its intent. Use with caution.

 

[Alex Snyder]

This thread is priceless.

Fuck yeah it is! One could build multiple pay plans off of this thread

 

[Alex Magnan]

Right now I pay my two BDC girls a base salary, $20/appt shown, $20/sold, and working on some type of spiff for helping F&I follow up on customers who didn't purchase after sell items.

 

[Steven_Finell]

I like that a lot!

But it is Monday, so let's shake things up a bit....

BDCs have outlived their usefulness.

I'll never forget sitting in my boss' office, in 2004, asking to bring the centralized BDC back. We had started one in 1997, but dissolved it due to a failed implementation that mostly stemmed from splitting commissions 50/50 between sales agents and the BDC (I was selling cars then and did my part to help sabotage that thing). However, I said to my boss that we did not have the sales staff, sales management, or interest from General Managers to handle the Internet the way it should be: by the same staff who handles all other ways a customer comes to buy a car....the sales agents.

Until we could get to that point we'd have to bow our heads in shame and employ a workaround called the BDC.

I'm happy to say that at the beginning of the 2nd quarter of 2015 Checkered Flag will finally dissolve the 11 year workaround. The up bus is not physically driving anymore; it is digitally driving. It has been doing this long enough for the traditional sales staff to have interest in the digital world. It is time for the Internet to become traditional.



P.S. Checkered Flag is usually a few years ahead of the trends, so don't fear for your income if you're part of a BDC just yet.

Might not be fair for me to jump in after my extended absence from DR but, I feel a need so here goes. Wasn't ever aware Checkered Flag had to "bow our heads in shame and employ a workaround called the BDC." It certainly didn't feel that way to me as the BDC Manager who, with your expert help Alex, (re)built the Service/Sales BDC for Checkered Flag in 2008/2009. As I recall, that BDC generated quite a bit of additional revenue for the group and helped us/you/them succeed through some of the economic hardships in retail automotive beginning about that time. Please know I'm not offended by your perspective - mine is different and I wanted to share it. I was both proud and pleased to have participated.

That said, having worked from the outside-in for VinSolutions since leaving Checkered Flag in 2010, and having been involved to varying degrees with hundreds of dealerships and groups since, it was clear to me the more successful dealers were digitally-oriented, supporting like-minded sales staff. A sales rep waiting for the internet lead appointment to be set for him/her is clearly at a disadvantage to the peer who cultivated his/her own business through a robust online presence and appropriate Ninja-esque follow-up habits and skills.

Any dealership pay plan ought to reward (only) those behaviors which serve their objectives. A universally-accepted example are sales rep pay plans - per sale/revenue generated. Yet to get a 10 car "guy" to 20, one should also compensate for the successful behaviors (tasks, steps, actions) necessary to drive that result, until those behaviors are habitual. The successful sales rep has either figured that out on their own ("gotta generate traffic") or, it has been a learned set of behaviors ("I need to make X calls per day/hour to generate X appointments leading to X sales and X income").

The calls-per-hour element of the BDC pay plan we used, among others, at Checkered Flag served the initial BDC objectives - shown appointments. All elements of any pay plan should compensate based on the factors the individual substantially controls. 'Calls per hour' is a clear example. Once that metric is routinely achieved, the pay plan should compensate for the next level - appointments set, for example. The 'Calls per hour' metric continues to be measured (BDC and floor) but, may not be an element of the pay plan as much as it could then be a condition of continued employment.

To compensate a BDC rep for the sale isn't appropriate, in my opinion. However, recognizing this is a team sport, it may be entirely appropriate to compensate each member of the team for a month-over-month improvement in the team's overall objectives.

 

[Alex Snyder]

I love how my post is bringing the (old) Checkered Flag crew out. Steve

Actually, I'm glad you spoke up to represent the service side of things. That is one area where a call center makes a lot of sense. Service writers can be the linchpin to fixed operations, and to offload all the phone calls that slow them down is a prudent thing. If only Sales agents were as busy as Service writers.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Why on earth would I get rid of a rockstar that's producing more than anyone else?

"Hold up a second Heather, I recognize that you're out-producing everyone on the average, but you're making way too much money, so we're going to cut your pay…"

A. I never said get rid of anyone!
B. I did not say Heather was making 100K on that plan, I said it would be easy for me to do so.

My point was that it is harder to find and train good sales people than BDC people, so use the BDC to gather more information about the customer and the deal instead of just pushing customer into the funnel (volume Vs. more information/quality lead).

Nobody said finding good people was easy, but it's a task that can be accomplished. The training part is what our industry lacks and the reason for most failures. Do a better job training and holding people accountable and there's no need for the two different departments. I'll address the second part of this under the next quote.

Correct, the phone script can be fine tuned (as you have taught for many years) to be very efficient. I believe that a person with an interest on the sale in mind will obtain more information and prepare better. A salesperson with all the info (trade, payoff, work status, insurance info, co-buyer, desired vehicle, color preferences, reason why buying the vehicle, credit status, etc) will be a more successful more times than a salesperson that just has an up shown up.

When is the last time you took a phone call Yago? People are very defensive and not inclined to give out a lot of information. I suggest giving enough information in order to obtain an appointment. Sell the appointment over the phone and sell the vehicle in person. You can get information from the customer when giving them a good reason to provide information. Inquiring about credit on the phone can be considered offensive by people with great credit. Only time I talk credit is if the customer brings it up first, and then I tell them we can probably help. BDC reps are not qualified to make a credit decision on a customer over the phone. Somebody wants to come in, then I am bringing them in. Even credit challenged customers need to be sold. Based on your thoughts it would seem you are accustomed to working with financially challenged customers. I have not heard from too many stores complaining because the BDC is flooding the showroom with appointments that can't buy. If the problem exist, I would really like to hear about it.. I would bet 60% or more of the BDC's that exist are not providing their dealerships with real value.

And on a final note, of course everyone would like to see dealership personnel making a lot more money; that's until you are the one writing the check! Why pay 100K for a job when there is an equally talented person willing to do the job for 50K?

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

I love how my post is bringing the (old) Checkered Flag crew out. Steve.

I know! What rock did he pop out from under? I thought I had heard he became a Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman working door to door.