Many dealers feel they need both a sales and a service BDC based on advice from numerous industry trainers. The thought process is that the sales BDC’s job is to set appointments for sales customers and the service BDC sets appointments for service customers. But what if you combined the two to create a single service BDC? Service is the largest percentage of…

Are you interested in success or committed to it? It’s likely we think we’re committed, but as the saying goes “actions speak louder than words.” I’m thinking specifically about the fact that the majority of dealers don’t answer 3 out of 10 inbound service calls. 

Really…

You’re not closing as many leads as you want, but you can’t figure out how to improve the situation. Your sales team is jumping on hot leads and setting follow-up reminders in the CRM, but your closing ratio is still below the 12.5 percent industry…

Clean, organized data will help you achieve more productivity and revenue from your BDC. You may not even realize your data is dirty, or disorganized.  

That’s because mess and decay happen gradually, over time. For example, it’s estimated that up to 30 percent of the…

Newspaper and TV are the traditional giants of a dealership marketing strategy. But relying solely on these two channels constricts your reach. Every year, fewer people gravitate to the traditional, and new avenues gain steam.

According to the…

Marketing and lead generating activities take tons of time and money. Unless you automate them. Marketing automation can increase sales as much as 33 percent, according to an article in the Harvard Business Review. 

Chalk those results up to the fact that automation allows BDC agents to make more calls in less time, send targeted campaigns to thousands of recipients in seconds, easily access…

As the internet made way for a simpler car buying experience, many dealerships turned to a concept called a BDC, or Business Development Center, to handle the influx of phone calls from customers. These days, a BDC is practically a necessity in a thriving dealership. However, how do you tell if your BDC is functioning properly and ensuring the most customers…

Implementing a BDC at your dealership is a proven way to maintain control of leads and processes. However, too many BDC’s underperform or even break-down completely due to a fatal mistake: a poor BDC manager. Poor managerial skills lead to erosion of processes and employee morale, resulting in unanswered calls, long wait times, loss of business, and high employee turn-over.

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Phone and email are the titans of customer communications and most likely form the backbone of your business development. But they shouldn’t be the only way you communicate with customers. Relying on only one or two traditional forms of communication can be fatal to your dealership.

Customers today expect to be able to converse with you through multiple channels. Everything from texting to Live chat to Facebook messenger. And they want those communications to be seamless and…

Are you running an internal BDC at your dealership without the tools necessary to measure if it’s profitable? Do you know how many calls agents are making per day, who they are contacting, if they are connecting, and what campaigns are making money?  You would be surprised how many dealerships don’t track this data.

Many have arbitrary goals,…

A lot of dealerships prefer using an internal sales and service BDC to maintain control of leads and processes. Yet, many struggle to measure what’s working and what’s not when it comes to maximizing the efficiency and productivity of every BDC agent. Are you among them?

The BDC is the glue that holds it all together when it comes to bringing traffic into your store. Managed properly, your BDC can help increase appointments, shows, sales, and closing percentages.

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The future looks bright for service departments. According to research firm HIS Markit, the average age of a vehicle on the road today is a geriatric (for cars) 11.9 years. People are holding onto their cars longer, which can generate new business opportunities for your service department.

However, you can’t just expect a flood of service work. Someone needs…

The New Year is shaping up to be a good one for dealers. According to a report by the Economist, new car sales will be up by 15 percent in 2021.

I think we’re all happy to have 2020 in the rearview mirror. Now it’s time to refuel, refine and ride into stellar sales numbers. Get every department in your dealership in tip-top shape and drive into profitability with the following…

One of the fears dealerships have regarding digital innovations in the automotive industry is that the internet will replace phones. However, it is a well-known fact that phone leads close significantly faster than internet and social leads combined. And guess what -- fixed operations generates many of them. As a result, dealerships are placing a…

The traditional dealership business model is increasingly sharing space with a digital customer experience. A BDC can help dealers adapt and excel during this period of change. Three big trends highlight this new way of doing business:  

• Online lead volume is up dramatically as people continue to choose touch less research and shopping.
• Dealership employee numbers are down as dealers cut costs and shift more…

We sometimes wonder why the BDC is not performing like they used to be. At the same time, instead of acquiring new talent to fill a position or assist another department, we often shift them over instead. Sounds like a great idea, right? It means that we don't have to hire another position, and they have the skills needed for the job! But what we often don't consider is that it leaves an empty gap in the BDC. Or worse, if you leave the BD Agent in the BDC but have them off task, it lessens…

The saying, “Everything old is new again,” applies to your leads. Old leads can become new sales when you use the data in your CRM to re-start sales conversations with customers who are still in the market, or in the market again.

This strategy is especially helpful if you’re not getting the volume of high-quality new leads that you’d like from your website and marketing efforts.…

Many people over time have gone on blind dates. Sometimes those dates were set-up by friends and scheduled for one person to meet the other with the two having no knowledge of each other. Sometimes the one being set-up by their friends has some information about who they will be meeting and sometimes both parties have some prior knowledge of each other. The…

Anyone in sales can probably agree that leaving dozens of voicemails a day that are never returned is the most frustrating part of automotive phone sales. The average voicemail return rate is 4.8 % and sales reps spend about 15% of their…

Your dealership likely spends a lot of money each month for internet leads. Are you responding to each lead within minutes? If not, you’re throwing money away.

Fast responses win business. According to a study from the Harvard Business Review, companies that respond to a lead within the first hour are 7X more likely to qualify that lead (defined as having a meaningful conversation with a decision maker) than those who respond even an hour later.

Those who…