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Just started as the sole BD Rep for a dealership. Need help getting things off the ground easier.

Koton

Full Sticker
Jul 25, 2017
13
1
First Name
Jake
My story: (I do apologize for this being so long, and if this is in the wrong place) So I interviewed at a dealership here in Florida for a sales position since I was looking for a job. They said they had been looking for someone to start a small BDC and asked if I would be interested in that instead. They just want one person for now and to kind of figure it out.

Thought it would be a great opportunity to build something, and excellent resume builder in the long run. I also just got a good vibe off the general manager and sales staff since their turnover is crazy low for a car dealership. Most people have been several years, and their sales staff turnover is only around 10-15 percent out of around 20-25 sales rep.

I was fairly certain with my experience, I would be able to improve efficiency. I had helped my previous department overall Quality Assurance scores go up by teaching them how to write e-mails better, and edit drafts to personalize them more. I had also assisted in phone training as well.

Well things here are more behind here than I thought, and it has been a slow process. Some of the managers don't know CRM, can do, as it appears to have had a lot of updates the past year. I only have manager access and not admin so I need to run changes through them, basically as I find they aren't working for my job. They only want me to followup on older leads that have not been reached out to in a fewdays, which I believe is unusual for a BDC but I am fine with. I am having to comb through logs though to find leads that fit this, and haven't had too much success.

My question is what processes in Vinsolutions does your BDC find useful, and what can I do to get this on the right track in general? Sorry again for this being long. I just want to succeed and finally get some bonuses, as currently all I appear to do is to suggest changes to the system as many things seem outdated.
 
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Don't be like everyone else - send a personalized video first! Because almost nobody will ever reply to your text emails, trust me. All the marketers selling email leads got it wrong. Email leads suck. Tell them in the video you are here to help make this easy, help you find a car you'll love, and always make sure you get the best deal possible. Invite them in for a test drive, and tell them your cell number and tell them you can reach out to me anytime by calling, texting, sending me back a video or coming in, but appointments are recommended.

Try that on 50 prospects and don't on the rest. Chances are open rates on the 50 will the 4X the email, and you will start creating the activity you need to open up some opportunity for your family.
 
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ahhhh, yes. Another name for a BDC in the dealer industry tends to be "the follow-up department."

@Koton thanks for joining us. Sounds like you were thrown into a real mess with little to no authority. Leverage your VinSolutions rep. Ask to be introduced to some other dealers that have a smaller BDC and following best practices with utilizing VinSolotions.

I'm guessing the dealership didn't give you a defined job description and what exactly is expected from you? After a short while you may want to request a back around on their expectations vs your expectations. Keep us updated.
 
@Koton VinSolutions is a good CRM (my opinion; there are issues with all of them) and there are tons of reports in the CRM that can help you in deciding how to best communicate with your clients. Everyone is different, markets are different, users are different - There is no one thing that works across the board. You need to test out different solutions and see what kind of results you get back.

Our opinion (and data backs this up) is that email is still a great communication tool and should not be ignored. Emails, however, should not contain a books worth of content; short, straight to the point (answering any questions the consumer asked) seems to get the best response rate.

One tip regarding you email templates in VinSolutions: Open up email accounts in gmail, yahoo, aol, etc. and see if your emails are coming through.