Sales & Marketing
Business Development Center: Using the data you have collected
By Forrest Scott
The mining of data is a major part of the BDC's role. However, for this mining to be effective the BDC must have a clear understanding with regard to what exactly you want and what they should be looking for. Today there are BDC software programs and computers available that make the task of finding critical data simple and easy. The changes brought about by technology and competition have made some of them extremely inexpensive and in some cases require no additional start up or maintenance fees. Considering the fact that there are great packages out there that cost no more than a few thousand dollars total, it's hard to understand how any dealership can avoid the BDC concept.
To get the most out of your BDC I suggest you include your BDC manager in your marketing meetings. As an example, the next time you plan a special event or sale, bring the BDC manager into the planning sessions. The following is a scenario of what could happen if all personnel and systems are in sync. Let's say your dealership decides it's going to have a major event. If you are going to use print (newspaper or direct mail) as part of this, wouldn't it be great if your BDC took the newspaper advertisement or direct mail piece and e-mailed it to every available person in your database. While this may seem like another expense, it's not. Since most advertisements and direct mail pieces are created on a computer, the cost of the piece (attachment to your e-mail) should be free. After all, you have paid for the creative. If you are not familiar with this, here is what you should do. After you have signed off on the marketing piece tell your creative person to also save the piece as a "JPEG" file. Once this is done you can attach the "JPEG" file to the e-mail you intend to broadcast/e-mail to your database. It's easy, quick and it cost you nothing. Considering the price, how can you go wrong? By performing this one concept the BDC could actually increase your exposure several times without costing you a cent.
What reports are necessary?
Reports are one of those areas that seem to create a lot of confusion and stress. It seems most dealers and managers at first have grand and glorious thoughts. They see themselves sitting, analyzing and reading these reports. The problem is that the typical car dealer, general manager, sales manager and service manager has a tight schedule as well as an array of distractions that might put their counterparts in other industries in an institution. The fact is most managers prefer exception reports. What they really want is to know the issues. Get them fixed or resolved as soon as possible and move on to the next set of issues.
If you have the time and inclination to review and wade through reports then by all means you should have the BDC get them for you. If not, don't pay to create them. It is important to remember that each report, while generated by your computer, takes valuable time. Sure the BDC presses buttons and the computer prints them out. But someone then has to copy the reports, collate them and then disseminate them according to the distribution list. Is it difficult? No, but it does take time. With this time I would prefer to see the BDC personnel calling customers, maintaining the database and performing proactive marketing procedures that could generate appointments, build relationships and generate new business.
Please note that I am not knocking reports. There are many reports that are absolutely necessary. However, I have seen too many cases where a dealership has paid to create and distribute reports which they never use. Why not save the time and money? You can always have a report created later should you feel the need.
Security
I strongly suggest extreme care be taken when you select a BDC software package. Before you purchase a software package a few of the items I would consider are:
- Does the software allow the ability to password protect the program? Not simply one password that everyone uses. Can you have individual passwords so you know exactly who was in the system and when?
- Can you lock individuals out of certain fields?
- Do you have the flexibility to allow only certain types of entries by certain employees?
- Can you set up the system so certain people can view the contents of certain customer's files without the ability to change or alter data?
- Will the software keep the e-mail messages in a specific customer's file that has been sent out? This could become a serious issue should a claim of any type be raised?
- Will the software log the amount of time a BDC person spent on the phone with a specific customer? This is an important feature when a BDC manager has people making calls after the manager has left for the day.
- Does the software keep copies of all correspondence sent to your customers?
- Are there levels of security, which allow only certain individuals the ability to delete data and/or a customer's file?
- Does the software log the actions of the person logged into the system?
While the above items are only a few of the areas of concern, they do give you the basic areas to explore with your software provider.
BDC's are growing at a rapid rate. If you have not considered installing one I suggest you revisit this issue. When it comes to units sold, to enjoy future growth you only have two choices: increase the amount of sales per salesperson or increase the amount of salespeople. It's easy to see that it is certainly in the dealerships best interest to concentrate on methods and systems to coach and assist the sales force to become more productive. When a BDC is installed properly, managed well and supported by top management, the benefits to the dealership can be enormous.
As a closing thought: considering the changing attitudes of the buying public, is it really logical to expect the systems of the past to successfully develop the relationships that will be necessary for a dealership to survive in the future? I believe we all know we will need to get closer to the customer. I believe we all know we will need to anticipate a customers return to the marketplace rather than simply waiting for them to show up on our doorstep. Perhaps more importantly we will need to be more cost effective in doing so. If you are not going to install a BDC how will you accomplish this?
Forrest Scott is president of Dynamic Marketing Strategies Inc.fscott@dealeronline.com
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