What would you do BDC or no BDC?

[Sachin Raja]

I've often considered setting up a BDC for our store.

Independent, Pre-Owned (AUTODOME, Selling Used Cars and Trucks in Mississauga, Toronto, Brampton| Used Cars Mississauga)
Fixed Price/No Haggle
230-250 Vehicles
No Service Department
avg 390 E-Leads (Website, Carchat24 and Autotrader/Kijiji)
7 Sales Reps/1 Sales Manager, No Shifts (Operate 10am-7pm, closed Sundays)
Sales Reps handle all E-Leads, Phone Calls & Live Sales
1 Marketing Manager who oversees general quality of email replies, but is more focused on vehicle advertising, videos, website design etc.

Using Autoraptor CRM which is great for a lot of things, but doesn't allow us to report on Contacted/Leads, Appointments/Contact, Appointments/Showed, Showed/Sold. The only thing I can report on is Leads/Sold.

We get a lot of inquiries from Autotrader & Kijiji that just give an offer/ask if we negotiate and we never get a reply from them once they find out we dont.

I know that there is a better way of doing things, just trying to figure out what.

One thing I've always wondered, what do you do when you get customers asking about vehicle specific questions (what is the tire tread depth? has the vehicle ever been smoked in? does it have this option code?)? Does the customer get transferred to a sales rep at this point?

 

[Jay Juliano]

I've often considered setting up a BDC for our store.

It's a smart business decision. Some may consider a BDC an unnecessary overhead but often those are dealerships that NEVER track the performance of their BDC with real metrics. If run properly a BDC can be a great investment.

Sales Reps handle all E-Leads, Phone Calls & Live Sales

I hate this process. It makes it near impossible to hold accountability. You need to track daily outbound calls, emails, set appts, shown appts, sold deals etc. per rep. You can't hold a salesperson accountable for only making 30 calls if the average should be 80. He/She may of had other priorities that day (ie. paperwork or working live customers all day). It's a flawed approach.

1 Marketing Manager who oversees general quality of email replies, but is more focused on vehicle advertising, videos, website design etc.

If he is an Internet Manager he needs to also be confirming appointments and hawking over the CRM to make sure every rep is doing his/her job. It's all about accountability.

Using Autoraptor CRM which is great for a lot of things, but doesn't allow us to report on Contacted/Leads, Appointments/Contact, Appointments/Showed, Showed/Sold. The only thing I can report on is Leads/Sold.

I'm not familiar with Autoraptor but you may want to place a call to technical support to see if there is away to track daily outbound phone calls/emails, appts, shown, sold etc. If not, consider changing CRMs. A good CRM is just as important as a DMS or Inventory Management System. And EVERYONE should use it religiously. Once you have everybody on the same page (Sales, Managers, F&I, BDC) you can actually make smart decision based on facts and not just assumption and ignorance like most dealers do.

We get a lot of inquiries from Autotrader & Kijiji that just give an offer/ask if we negotiate and we never get a reply from them once they find out we dont.

I tell my reps all the time that a customer most likely landed on OUR car because the price is right and it's exactly what they are looking for. It's programmed in to our heads that EVERYTHING at a dealership is negotiable and everything we say is a lie. Though some people give an offer they generally are looking for someone to reach out to them and make them feel comfortable coming to see YOU. I don't believe you have never discounted a car to make a deal if you were still holding gross. And neither will the customer.

"Other than the price Mr. Customer would there be anything else stopping you from visiting us and taking the Honda Civic for a test drive?".

"Perfect Mr Customer. I will surely let my sales manager know about your offer by the time you get here. When can you come in today?"

"Mr Customer we strongly believe we have the lowest pricing on the internet. If not, we would be more than happy to discuss it once you test drive the vehicle and make sure it's exactly what you want."

"Mr Customer our online pricing is discounted already. As you already know we have the lowest price on AutoTrader. In order to show up on the first couple pages of the search results we have to discount all of our vehicles. Times have changed. These days fast nickels are better than slow dimes. When can you come in to take the Honda Civic for a drive? My manager isn't going to lose you on the numbers!! "

One thing I've always wondered, what do you do when you get customers asking about vehicle specific questions (what is the tire tread depth? has the vehicle ever been smoked in? does it have this option code?)? Does the customer get transferred to a sales rep at this point?

The BDC rep can handle these questions. There's no need to involve a sales person unless you want your sales people to do some of the leg work. Of course answer the customers questions accurately. There's no better practice than good customer service. Very rarely will someone ask a question that can't be answered in one form or another.

"Tread depth? Hmm.. I don't have that information right now but I can have it available for you by the time you arrive for your appointment. What time works best for you tonight 5:15 or 5:45?"

If the customer asks "Can you tell me about that preowned Camry you have?"
"Mr Customer what would you like to know?"
"Mr Customer is has a long list of standard and optional features. What in particular would you like to know about the vehicle?"

A little training goes a long way. Personally I recommend hiring younger girls for the BDC who have GREAT personalities. They are usually aggressive and strangely know how to get what they want! They also don't have high demand for a big salary.

Make sure you hire a GOOD BDC Manager. Your team can only be as strong as the leader. I like to think of the BDC as a football team. Your manager is the coach. You can have a great or horrible season with the same teammates depending on who is coaching!

Oh and don't hire a salesperson to be a BDC Manager. A BDC Manager *generally* isn't a floor sales person. Still not sure why some dealerships make this decision.

 

[john.quinn]

Considering a BDC essentially means that you intend to pay someone to perform a specific set of tasks or employ a specific set of skills that are lacking in the current labor force.

What exactly are those tasks/skills?

Before you do anything, decide exactly what these tasks/skills are. Then determine if they can be taught/performed by the present staff. Hint: BDC's sell appointments, not cars.

What ROI will adoption of these tasks/skills provide? Does realization of this ROI justify the cost of the BDC? Therein will you find your answers.

 

[mcampo2501]

You wouldn't need more than 3 people to handle that kind of lead volume. The salary for all three shouldn't amount to much more than $100K/yr. I would agree strongly with John about the ROI. If that kind of money can't be made back up over the course of the year then it's a net loss unless you're pulling service business. Given that your CRM isn't providing the reports you need, your Marketing manager should be spreadsheeting them for you. My suggestion would be to at least use the close rate your CRM is providing you and add about 5% to that. With a BDC in place, that is a realistic expectation. As long as you know what your per copy is, that should be enough to tell you if it's worth investing in the new personnel. Also keep in mind that you'll get what you pay for in BDC personnel. You'll shoot yourself in the foot if you don't have at least one agent that has a proven track record of setting appointments in an automotive environment. Once you have that person, they can help you develop the others. That person will likely have to be paid a bit more than the others though. I say go for it!

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Skip the BDC, invest in a better CRM and maximize what you have.

 

[Sachin Raja]

Thank you so much for all of your ideas!

I got busy with some new projects, and then travelling to a few conferences.

Great ideas! I'm currently looking at changing up our CRM. Have a demo with Dealersocket today and had one yesterday with Elead1. Also considered the idea of the Virtual BDC that Elead1 offers.

Jay: We really don't discount vehicles, we have walked customers who wanted $50 off of the price. We came up with the idea so that everyone would be treated fairly and we want to do our absolute best to stick to it. The issue is, getting our customers to be on the same page as us. The general public has been so well trained in the idea that Car buying = negotiation.