Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Putting An Empty BDC To Use
Putting An Empty BDC To Use
Page 1
www.NewVisionSales.com Info@NewVisonSales.com
In dealerships across the country, the doors of many business
development centers are closed due to cost cutting. In the
average dealership without a BDC or call center, the handling of
phone calls is still abominable. In reality, business development
is more important today than ever and cutting costs in business
development can have devastating effects.
If you have an empty BDC, I strongly suggest you cross train your
salespeople to perform business development functions—call leads,
set appointments, follow up with be-backs, etc. It doesn’t need
to be full-scale training, but there has to be some phone skills
training for the people answering the phone and making calls.
This is especially important if you once had a trained BDC
performing both of those functions.
The person in the BDM role doesn’t need to be a new hire; it can
be someone within the store who is respected and has a bit of a
drill sergeant attitude. You can’t have a “five-car Charlie”
leading the troops in business development. It just won’t work.
Having a BDM will prevent salespeople from cherry picking the
leads, which only lets your dollars and potential sales fall by
the wayside.
Page 2
www.NewVisionSales.com Info@NewVisonSales.com
rather than just criticism. Identified concerns without viable
solutions are worthless.
One method I use to see how salespeople are performing is (if you
still have a BDC, in-house or outsourced) asking customers to
call the BDC back to rate the salesperson that greeted them on
the lot. (Stress the need to get a name or business card.) People
love to call back and either brag about or tell on somebody. You
can find out some interesting things by doing this. For example,
at one dealership, a salesperson told a woman who rode the bus to
the dealership to take a credit application home, fill it out and
then bring it back to the dealership. The manager was not happy
to hear a sales rep made a decision for him. To encourage
customers to call back, tell them the rating and information they
provide will be confidential, and you can even provide an
incentive, such as a gas card drawing.
One phenomenal dealer I’ve worked with implemented an
accountability room in his dealership, which allows managers to
monitor follow-up. An accountability room provides one
centralized location for salespeople to get off the floor,
complete their daily work plans and basically do what really is
the core of their job. That is, following up, sending e-mails and
letters, and building customer relationships. To do this, they
must have the mindset of not wanting to sell one person a car,
but wanting to sell everyone they know a car. Salespeople with
that discipline and mindset will sell more cars.
Page 3
www.NewVisionSales.com Info@NewVisonSales.com
said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an
act, but a habit!”-, What do you repeatedly do to maximize the
effectiveness and profitability of your marketing efforts and
money? Habit requires a commitment. Commitment provides
accountability. Math never lies!
Twitter: www.twitter.com/NewVisionSales
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NewVisionSales
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/NewVisionSales
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grodean
Page 4
www.NewVisionSales.com Info@NewVisonSales.com