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