BDC 2.0 - How to Sell Cars in the BDC

     Why has the BDC died in most dealers?  Why are the ones left not successful in setting appointments?  What should a they be doing?  How should they be staffed?  What is the goal of the BDC?  Why does everyone need one?  Glad you asked.  I am going to tell you.  Dealers, we have a communication problem.  Your customers cannot communicate with your dealership.  They are reaching out to you and they are getting a hand in the face.  Why, because dealers have not learned how to communicate with internet shoppers.  What we need to understand about internet shoppers is that they cannot be controlled.  Dealers can either make a choice to play by their rules or not play at all.  They hold all the cards and we cannot see them until they are ready to show them.  So, what are dealerships doing wrong?  It all starts with a lead.  A lead can be the phone call or the internet lead.  When they decide to pick up the phone or send in a inquiry about a vehicle, they have goal that they are trying to achieve.  That goal is information.  Information is gold to the customer.  It is everything they need to make a decision to come to the dealership and buy your car.  This should be an easy exchange between customer and dealer personnel.  Dealers have information and customers want information.  So, why does it go bad in most cases?  Because the person who answers the phone or internet lead does not have the information or cannot not give it to them promptly.  Some dealers are still giving sales calls to salespeople.  Salespeople have been trained to set the appointment.  Give as little information as possible.  Get customer information and set the appointment.  That is still being trained today.  This technique is not going to make the customer want to come running to your dealership.  Imagine your dealership is a pizza parlor.  When the phone rings the customer asks what kind of pizzas you have.  Your employee answering the phone tells them you have all kinds of pizzas and that they will love them.  Come on down.  They want to know if you have Hawaiian Chicken pizza.  Your employee tells them that they have all kinds of pizza and are sure they will have one they will love.  Come on down.  Customer hangs up the phone and calls the next pizza parlor.    No information given to the customer that will make them want to come in.  When your dealership sales people answer the phone that is the conversation that takes place.  No information, no dealership visit.
     Some dealers have realized that salespeople may not be the best at answering the phone and converting calls to appointments.  That realization has brought the BDC (Business Development Center) to dealers to ensure that customer calls and leads are followed up correctly and promptly.  They hire BDC agents to sit at a desk and answer phone calls and emails.  Now the BDC agent can field customer questions and provide valuable information quickly, or not.  The BDC agent cannot give information quickly because he or she is not authorized to make decisions about the components of a car deal.  What is the best price on this car?  What is my trade worth?  What is my interest rate?  What are my payments?  Do I qualify for 0% interest?  Is the vehicle still available?  This information is the gold.  This is the information that is going to make the customer either come in and buy your vehicle or move on to the next dealer.  Your BDC agent cannot give that information to the customer.  It must come from a manager.  They have to ask the sales manager for the best price.  They have to ask the used car manager for information on the trade.  They have to ask the finance manager for information on interest rate, payment and loan qualification.  This takes time.  This is a problem.  Internet shoppers are used to  immediate self gratification.  They will not wait for information.  They will simply seek it elsewhere. How long do you wait for a web page to load before you click off that page?  About 3 seconds. Then you look elsewhere for the information.  Sound crazy?  It is not crazy.  It is what our internet shoppers are used to.  Information must be delivered quickly and it must be relevant to them. 
In 2013 I spent months researching dealers responses to mystery shopper internet leads and phone calls.  What I found was that most dealers did a poor job of providing the information.  Most internet leads went unresponded for over 12 hours.  I asked specific questions about best price and availability.  I received mostly the same answer.  When can you come in?  This is not the answer internet shoppers want to hear when reaching out to dealers for information.   It is time for immediate transparency when dealing with internet shoppers.  Best price, best trade, lowest interest rate, lowest payment and best internet sales process.  How can you hide high prices from internet shoppers?  You cannot.  They are looking at many other vehicles just like yours at other dealers on the same page of autotrader.com or cars.com.  When talking trade in, give best possible price instead of safest possible price.  Offer best possible payment and interest rate immediately.  Also, you must let the customer know that you have a special sales process for internet shoppers.  They do not want to be dragged down the road to the sale.  They want to verify the vehicle condition and complete the deal quickly. 
Back to giving all the information to the customer.  Your BDC is not staffed to provide an internet shopper with all the information needed to make a decision to come to the dealership.  This must change.  There is someone in the dealership who can quote best prices, trade values, run credit, give payments and close deals.  That is right.  The General Sales Manager.  Your BDC must have a General Sales Manager available to deal out information about every possible component of the car deal immediately.  This is not the front end General Sales Manager.  This is a BDC General Sales Manager that is capable of doing all these things.  With a GSM staffed in the BDC we can now talk turkey on every possible variable of the car deal.  Right now.  No waiting.  This is huge.  This is the future of car sales.  Because the internet shopper has become an internet buyer.   You better be able to provide valuable content quickly if you want customers to come to the dealership. 
     BDC departments have died because they cannot set appointments.  They are not capable of setting appointments because they cannot provide information.  They should staff the BDC with a GSM to assist BDC agents in providing information to customers quickly.  Information from BDC agents should lead to appointments.  Appointments lead to deals.  Setting appointments is the goal of the BDC.  And that is why every dealership needs one.
I am happy to talk to dealers, managers, general sales managers who have questions about how to create a BDC that sells cars .  Feel free to call me at (812)972-3234. 

Robert Coleman

Inventory Management Solutions

Founder 30DAYCARS.COM

robertcoleman@30daycars.com

www.30daycars.com

(812)972-3234

www.facebook/30DAYCARS.COM

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

     It is time to get a grip on your used car department.  I see used car departments adrift with no one at the wheel.  Who is in charge of the used inventory from acquisition to delivery at your dealership?  Are they equipped and authorized to properly acquire, ship, recon, market, price and sell those vehicles?  Many dealers do not provide their used car manager with the tools and knowledge to be able to effectively manage their used car department.  This article will help you create a used car process from acquisition to delivery that will get your used car department turning vehicles quickly with maximum profit.

     Step one is to get your used car team assembled and identify job roles and time frame expectations for getting the vehicles through each step in the process.  There must be a leader of this group.  It could be used car manager, general sales manager or owner.  Someone with authority to make things happen at the dealership.  That person must be involved in the daily operation of the used car department.  They must be able to influence all other members of the team .  Used cars need special treatment in your dealership.  They must have front of the line attention from service and detail departments.  Service manager and detail manager must be aware of recon time in shop and have clear goals to meet.  Other members of the team must include an emarketing person who will take pictures and post them to vehicles.  That person will also ensure proper online visibility of all vehicles on all sites.  They will work closely with the used car manager to ensure proper pricing and equipment on each vehicle.  

     Step two is to have a clear plan for each department for getting used cars through the process and ready for sale.  The clock starts when the vehicle is delivered.  The process must fire as soon as possible.  The used car manager must have the vehicle cleaned for pictures immediately.  The detail department does not do a full detail at this point.  You just need it good enough for pictures.  The vehicle may be clean enough for pics at delivery.  Have the writing and stickers removed from windows and let the emarketing manager take pictures and post them online.  The vehicles must be priced immediately.  The goal is to have the vehicle pictured and priced online within 24 hours from purchase.  The used car manager must notify the service department immediately that the vehicle has arrived.  The service manager or writer must write up and dispatch service RO immediately.  This is the first choke point in the process.  You must give your used cars front of the line attention in the service department.  Your used car department is your largest customer in service.  It spends more money than anyone else.  It should get preferred treatment.  Hire dedicated techs if necessary.  The vehicles must be through service in 24 hours from delivery on average.  The detail department must turn the vehicle in 24 hours from time give to them.  This is the second choke point in the process.  You must control the detail process or your vehicles.  Have multiple sources for getting your vehicles detailed.  Having a full time detail department on site is the best option.  Have a local detail shop for a back up when there is a back up.  I suggest having a second shift detail crew that details after hours.  Having detail workers that are flexible is a huge benefit to dealers.  Find people who are willing to be "on call" for second shift detail work.  Used car manager must be accountable to schedule detail after hours detail workers.

     Step three is to ensure a proper pricing policy for your vehicles.  You must have a pricing tool to be effective in turning used cars quickly.  I am a Vauto user and suggest them to anyone who does not have a pricing tool.  The bottom line is that not all cars are the same.  Some are fast turning cars and some are not.  The key to turning all cars quickly is to be able to identify the market day supply of the cars.  Market day supply is simply how many cars are available verses how many people are buying them.  A high day supply car may mean that there are many cars like it for sale now in the market.  To sell a high day supply car you need to price it aggressively compared to the market average.  A low day supply car means that there is a high demand and a low supply.  These cars have more people looking for them than there are available for sale.  You should be able to ask for a higher price to market for these type of vehicles.  This is where the pricing tool comes in.  If you cannot identify the day supply of a vehicle, you cannot price it accordingly.  If you could identify it as a high or low day supply vehicle, you could not tell what the market average is for the vehicle to price it accordingly.  This is the third choke point in the used car process.  Many dealers will mark up the vehicles and hope to land a customer on the vehicle who will like it enough to not care about the price compared to similar vehicles in the market.  Customers like this are a dying breed.  8 out of 10 customers who buy a car today start their shopping online.  There is no place to hide online.  Shoppers can compare your vehicle to many like it on the same page of sites like cars.com and autotrader.com.  Your price is visible for all to see compared to many just like it.  You will not get customers clicking on your vehicle if it is much higher than similar vehicles.  I believe customers view cars online like gas stations on 4 corners of an intersection.  I know that if 4 gas stations sell gas for $3.29, $3.49, $3.49 and $3.49 the station selling for $3.29 will be selling more gas.  Price sells cars online.  This is where we are.  Get used to it.  Customers are going to make a buying decision before they see the car in person.  Today's car buyers are visiting less than 2 dealers in person before they buy a car.  That means your online visibility is going to be the major purchase influence to 8 out of 10 cars you sell.  You showroom is no longer the high traffic area for potential customers.  

    If you follow these steps in your used car department, you will have a vehicle that is quick to online visibility and priced to sell quickly.  Your goal should be to have a retail sales average of 17 days in stock prior to sale.  That would turn your inventory 21.5 times a year and lift profit throughout the dealership.  These are very important steps in getting your vehicles ready for sale fast.  It still does not solve the entire used car department equation.  Which cars should I buy?  How should I price them?  How long should I keep them? Where should I buy them?  These are other questions that need addressed.  That will come in the next blog installment.  

You can visit my website for more information on turning used cars quickly at www.30daycars.com

I am happy to talk to dealers, used car managers, general sales managers or owners who have questions about how to create a fast turning used car department.  Feel free to call me at (812)972-3234.  

Robert Coleman

Founder 30DAYCARS.COM

robertcoleman@30daycars.com

www.30daycars.com

(812)972-3234

www.facebook/30DAYCARS.COM