THE FUTURE OF BDC?

[Jaythematador]

Hello Everyone,

So here's a question for all my Owners, General Managers, and Internet Directors. How confident are you in the way your leads are currently being followed up with? Do you know how many attempts are made before your leads are being thrown in the trash? As someone with over 6 years of experience managing the BDC department, handling over 20k leads per month for the BIGGEST used car group in the Florida, I can assure you that you are not even close to maximizing every opportunity coming your way. I've secret shopped over 100 stores and have the data to back up my statement. The game is changing and we are not fully adapting to the changes which can result in lack of productivity at your store.

As I continue to visit dealerships and partnering up with them, I am starting to see a trend. A trend that brews a problem and nobody is even noticing. A trend of paying agents to come in for 8 hours a day and make redundant amount of phone calls, send redundant amount of emails, with no game plan, no training, no strategy, no culture, and most importantly, no tools to help your agents fully engage with the leads they are working with. But how could they follow up? If they are currently answering new incoming leads? What happens to the leads that came in 2 weeks ago? 1 month ago? do you just forget about them? Were they free? Or did those leads cost you money? Because if you paid a good amount of money for them, I am going to assume you want these leads to be followed up with continuously and consistently until we get some kind of engagement.

So I ask...

What is your target? Are you focusing on "Answering your leads"? or are you focusing on ENGAGING with your leads? There is a BIG difference in the two. Anyone can answer a lead. Anyone can click on "complete task", stop the timer, make my call with no VM LEFT, send my email that's not even personalized because its a template made over 10 years ago, and not even text the customer. Or better yet, stay stuck with the "OPT-IN" messages and use that as an excuse on why you aren't engaging enough. Did I push a button yet? The truth can be hurtful sometimes. But in order to grow, we must be open to change. Open to the changes the car industry is currently facing and adapt to those changes.


P.S. SMS HAS A 98% OPENING RATE AND THE BOT YOU ARE USING IS THROWING YOUR LEADS AWAY. I HAVE THE DATA TO PROVE IT.



JAY MORA
CELL: 786-334-1567
EMAIL: [email protected]
MATADOR.AI

 

[Alex Snyder]

Driven Data showed a stat prior to COVID that roughly 70% of leads are responded to. With the layoffs after COVID, I would assume this has gotten far worse. Dealers calling to ask about my company's BDC program are confirming things have gone downhill for them.

 

[Jaythematador]

Thanks Alex! for taking the time to read. I agree, things were better before COVID. but this process of responding to a lead once without continuous peruse has been used for years and that's causing leads to be thrown away. Dealers are NOT prioritizing sms as a form of follow up or communication and data shows that sms is way more effective than emails. Do you agree?

 

[Alex Snyder]

Dealers are NOT prioritizing sms as a form of follow up or communication and data shows that sms is way more effective than emails. Do you agree?

If a customer is truly in-market (submitted a lead they meant to submit) they don't care if you email or text them. What they care about is having their questions answered. I know a few dealers who have automated their lead response in a way that answers those questions and communicate back and forth with 80%+ of their leads via email. SMS is just another avenue. The phone is another… and the phone is much better for scheduling appointments.

Not trying to argue with you. Just stating what I see.

 

[Jaythematador]

No worries, I know you aren't arguing. I appreciate the time you are taking to have an open dialogue about this.

Anything done with the right attitude and intention can work. Regardless of how you do it. And I am sure that you've been able to help a good amount of dealerships and you've been able to bring them success and that brings credibility. But what I've seen in most of the dealerships I've mystery shopped. Is a lack of attention to the customer, lack of customer service, lack of culture, and lack of follow ups, which can be a result of lack of process. not every customer that submits a lead wants to buy the same day. Some customers take time. and this can be a discussion that can last forever because the customer behavior is always changing. I've rescued leads that were submitted 3 months ago by a simple follow up text. so that shows that there is still food left on the table. Give me any dealership you can think of, I'll submit a lead via sms and let's see how they answer the lead and how they follow up. I'd love the see the outcome.

 

[Jaythematador]

@Alex Snyder LOVED YOUR WEBSITE https://frikintech.com/ BTW! Really cool stuff!

 

[John V.]

BDC is a four letter word in our group.
We call, text, and video every lead* at our top performing store. Other stores in the group don't and it shows. 15% vs. 5% close rate and they still don't get it. I had to implement at 15 call, 25 texts, and 5 personal videos a day - every day - for the month to qualify for any bonuses. Floor and Internet Sales included. Your get out of jail free card is 20 units. Taking a few $1,000 segment bonuses away and some got on the program.

it all goes to engagement. You have 4 days to get engagement after that you might as well just mark the lead dead and move on. I have data to show that long term follow up on any lead that has not replied to a video, call, text, or email within 4 days has less than a 10% chance of ever talking to you.

Long Term Follow up is dead and pointless.

*mostly

 

[Jaythematador]

Thank you John! But I respectfully disagree! Marking a lead lost after just 4 days of follow ups is not really consistent. Im sure you have a good turn around on your leads, but I can also assure you that there is food left on the table if the leads are only getting 4 days worth of follow up before marking them lost..
I do agree with hammering every source of communications. Call, email, text, video, etc. But you and I both know that the average leads are getting ONE CALL. redundant emails. ONE TEXT. and if the customer never answers, that's it. Lead is thrown in the trash. Like you said, it all about engagement. And data shows that there is more engagement through sms. So why not have an automated consistent follow up sequence that can do the heavy lifting for you while the agents focus on engage leads. If given the opportunity, I'd love to hop on a call with you and show you exactly what I mean. I can tell you are a data driven person, and so am I! so let's talk!

 

[John V.]

Because why pay a company to do something that your Sales Agents are supposed to be doing?

 

[ChrisR]

Because why pay a company to do something that your Sales Agents are supposed to be doing?

My thoughts on BDC vs sales floor follow up leans more toward responsiveness.

If a sales rep gets a response while working with an in-person guest, what is the procedure for not keeping the response time from getting too high? I prefer to have someone dedicated to responding, while others are dedicated to solidifying sales.