First, Hey Joe, you might remember me from years past.
Some topics will bring me out of retirement and this is one of them.
You need a BDC if you salespeople aren't properly trained, unmotivated and poorly supervised. I walk into stores and think their salespeople should be ticked for loitering. You look at the stats on emails and it is rare to find a store where emails are answered in a timely fashion or at all. Sales calls are rarely monitored and appointments aren't confirmed.
I do business with the largest CDJR dealer in north Texas. They did away with their BDC about four years ago and have done nothing but grow since. Not only have their sales increased so has their gross. I remember when they had the BDC. They would offer fifty dollar gift cards for anyone coming in for a test drive and a spiff for whoever set the appointment. They would get on the phone and bring back every bad credit person that could use fifty dollars.
If you have quality salespeople, they know the product and how to talk to people then why do you need to replace them with clerks?
The gift card/bad credit issue is strictly training, and setting up a system where poor results are rewarded.
That being said, if that CDJR dealer, or any other store, has the wherewithal to do the training, maintain the follow-up, and have strong solid processes, it's a huge thing because it eliminates an a lot of expense; benefits, salaries, etc.
The problem is that such a thing is so rare, and often sales managers are complicit in the lack of phone/lead training and ability of their sales staff, which makes the BDC a necessity, although an added problem there is if they don't train the salespeople chances are the BDC isn't being trained right either.
Whichever of those is the case, there should be a lot of people asked to move on with their life's work and be replaced. Andi if you say that it's tough to replace people, try to remember it's even harder to replace lost customers and revenue.
