Sales & Marketing
Business Development
By Forrest Scott
True business development is the result of careful planning. Designing a long-term solution unique to your dealership. Most dealerships have a unique style and culture. If you believe your dealership is no different from every other dealership, a cookie cutter approach may work for you. However, if you believe your dealership is unique, I suggest careful planning become a top priority.
As you create a business development plan you should consider the areas that are critical to your current business success as well as those you wish to grow and or improve. The basic issues that are relevant to business development are: customer loyalty, repeat and referral business and market penetration, as well as your fair share of the Parts and Service business in your market. Add in the Internet and you can quickly see business development encompasses significantly more than the simple installation of a singular concept. The purpose of a complete business development plan is to assure you, the dealer, that every business development concept you adopt compliments the other. Essentially, by taking the time to plan, you create a blueprint for success.
Whether you choose to develop in-house or select a consultant to assist your business development plans, you should insist this person fully understand your dealership, its style and culture. The person should involve all key members of management and be capable of assessing the sales staff as well as all dealership employees who deal directly with your customers.
Determining the right solution, concept or concepts for your dealership's overall business development will actually be simplified by taking the time to properly plan. Should you decide to install a center to manage or supervise your customer communications, what you call it will mean a lot less than the functions it performs. Whether you choose to call it a BDC (Business Development Center), CRC (Customer Relationship Center) or CDC (Customer Development Center). It really doesn't matter. Generally, they all attempt to create an environment where customers and prospects are handled and managed more professionally. To be successful with any of these concepts, you must have professional leadership, follow-up, accountability and a clear set of guidelines and mission statement. If you plan to use a consultant to install any of these concepts, you should interview this person to be sure his interpretation of the concept is exactly what you expect. This is extremely important since you may each have your own idea as to the functions the center will perform. As an example: You may be extremely satisfied with the performance of your sales staff regarding in-bound telephone calls, your expectation may be for the center to follow-up all showroom traffic, call all customers after they visit your service department, maintain a comprehensive database and manage all internet leads. Your consultant may have in mind a program primarily designed around in-bound telephone calls. While both concepts have their place, the question is, are you getting what you truly want and need?
With regard to the term CRM (Customer Relationship Management), this is what the rest of the world, outside of the automobile industry, uses to describe its effort to build, manage and cultivate relationships with their customers and prospects. Phone rooms, on the other hand, are another concept altogether. Generally, this concept is focused on both in-bound as well as prospecting telephone calls. Typically, salespeople are cycled through this room. This concept has been around for some time, with limited success. While it could work, leadership is a major issue, and salesperson turnover creates multiple issues and costly training concerns.
Bull pens have also been around for a while. The basic thought process is to house all of the sales staff in one room where they can be managed more easily. This concept has worked well in some dealerships. However, if your dealership works with an open floor, the concept presents certain difficulties. The Bull pen concept seems to work best with a rotation concept. In environments where a customer base is rather diverse and customers migrate to a salesperson they feel more comfortable with, the rotation concept could present problems.
As you can see, true business development focuses on the entire process of cultivating, maintaining and building long- term relationships with customers and prospects. Your plan could be as simple as doing a better job in the following up of showroom traffic. Or as large as having a center that manages all of the customer contact, a comprehensive in-bound telephone management program, an internet lead management program, lease renewal, customer service clinics, etc. You may even decide that a business development program such as a newsletter should be part of your long-term plan. The importance of planning is making all of these pieces fit with the least amount of confusion and the greatest amount of reward.
Dealers have always focused on sales and new ways of attracting customers to their dealerships. However, rising advertising costs, the likelihood that we will no longer be able to purchase vehicle owner lists and the Internet have dictated change. I have received an enormous amount of questions as a result of my articles in this magazine. I appreciate the feedback and will be happy to answer any question you have.
Forrest Scott is president of Dynamic Marketing Strategies Inc. fscott@dealeronline.com
