Sales & Marketing
Problem Solving for Business Development Centers
By Forrest Scott
It seems that the number of dealerships with failing BDCs is increasing. While this is not a nice commentary, we must face the facts. The good news is that the solutions are not that difficult if true commitment is there.
Like any problem, before we can solve it we need to identify the problem and its source and then establish workable solutions.
In an effort to assist you in your efforts to have a smooth running BDC, I have decided to present a case study. I will also work through the problems and provide solutions.
A dealer has decided that a BDC would be a great idea for his dealership. He hired a BDC manager, who then hired four people to work with the manager in the BDC. Once the BDC manager was hired, the dealer held a meeting to inform the sales managers and the general manager of his decision. The dealer and the BDC manager then held a meeting with the general manager, sales managers and the service manager to inform them that all of the inbound sales calls would now be routed to the BDC for initial contact.
In addition, the service manager was informed that the BDC would be contacting all of the service customers to see if they were satisfied. The dealer told everyone at the meeting that his goal was to ensure true customer satisfaction and to build a strong and workable database. The managers stated that they would fully cooperate and were equally committed. Following this meeting, the BDC manager began the process of building and running the BDC.
Within the first month, the BDC manager became both confused and disillusioned. The BDC manager's frustration was the result of the following. The salespeople were not providing the required information to the BDC for input into the system. The sales managers stated that they would speak to the salespeople and make sure they gave the BDC information regarding every up they had, but nothing changed. The BDC manager couldn't understand why the BDC continued to receive very little information from the sales floor, even though the sales managers told the dealer they were committed to the success of the BDC. In fact, many of the salespeople provided no customer information other than the sold customers. Additionally, the BDC was frustrated with the fact that the inbound calls that required a callback from a salesperson were rarely made in a timely fashion.
To make matters worse, after numerous concerns regarding customer handling by the service writers surfaced, the service manager went to the general manager and got him to reassign the service follow-up call person to him. At this point the BDC manager was totally frustrated and resigned. The dealer called the BDC manager into his office to discuss the reasons for leaving. When informed of the problems, the dealer called in all of the managers. The managers stated that they liked the idea of the BDC at first but saw little if any benefit resulting from the BDC. They continued to state that they felt the BDC was actually causing problems with the sales force. The service manager stated that he saw no reason for the dealership tofund a BDC when he could manage the person and get the same results.
The dealer was faced with a decision to make. Equally, he was troubled with the following questions: Was he wrong in thinking the BDC could help the dealership? How could the BDC cause problems for the sales managers with the sales force? Since the BDC was in place, he no longer heard constant paging for a salesperson to take an inbound sales call-wasn't this good sign? Among other concerns, the dealer hated going to a restaurant, bumping into a customer and hearing how his salespeople didn't return calls or follow up with them. Was there really no solution to this? The dealer told the managers that he was not accepting the BDC manager's resignation. At least not until he had time to think the problem through.
The dealer was naturally frustrated. He was hoping for the result of a higher level of communication with the customer, better be-back ratios and the building of a quality database. I met this dealer when he stopped by my booth at N.A.D.A.. He explained his concerns and asked if I would come to his dealership to make an assessment.
The following is a brief assessment of what I found, as well as a few of my recommendations:
- The dealer should have involved the managers in the process earlier than he did. The managers disliked the fact that the dealer hired the BDC manager without their input. While I do believe the managers should have been involved earlier, after further review I didn't think it would have changed the outcome.
- The decision to have the BDC do showroom follow-up was made without careful thought to the processes currently in place. In this case there really wasn't any process in place. At least that was my opinion. The salespeople took ups and volunteered information when they felt like it. I was extremely concerned with the fact that the sales desk had little control of the sales process. My recommendation was for the sales manager to maintain a showroom log of all ups. Seemed pretty simple to me, but what a difficult time it was to get him to do it. Once this was in place, the BDC manager was able to have someone match the up sheets given to the BDC by the salespeople against the up log for accuracy. The result in the first week was that less than 40% of the ups were given to the BDC. But now the BDC was able to get to the other 60-plus percent. Sure the sales manager was embarrassed, annoyed and irritated with the salespeople, but that wasn't the point. The point was follow-up with the customers. And that is what is happening now.
- With regard to inbound sales calls, the sales manager eventually found that not all of the salespeople were upset with the BDC. The salespeople who were upset were the salespeople who were typically the quickest to get the calls. He also found that they were not necessarily doing the best at handling the calls either. My recommendation was to log every call on the sales manager's daily log and the salespeople's calls were monitored for proper follow-up. The BDC was also instructed to call every phone up to ensure the customer was satisfied.
- With regard to service follow-up, I suggested that the BDC make the calls. After the change, we found that the concerns still existed and that some of the service writers needed coaching.
The above are only a few of the recommendations that were made. More important is the fact that the BDC was able to function and become a valuable asset to the dealership. Now the dealership is capturing information regarding the customers who visit the dealership. They also have increased their be-backs as a result of the follow-up calls being made by the BDC. The sales manager is now better equipped to do one-on-ones with his sales force because the BDC provides a daily worksheet for each salesperson each day.
The service manager was the toughest. Let's face it, the service manager has a tough job. Having to hear about less-than-satisfied customers is not pleasant. By focusing on the issues one by one we have managed to reduce the number of customer complaints. The mere fact that the salespeople and the service writers know the BDC will be calling the customers has raised the level of care and concern. The dealer has mandated that consequences be in place should the salespeople, writers or managers fail to perform as instructed. This is an important piece of the equation. Some call it fear. I would like to think of it more as people living up to expectations. Whatever you call it, the days of tolerating indifference are gone. There simply is no room for people who are not unified in the dealership's commitment to success.
Forrest Scott is president of Dynamic Marketing Strategies Inc. fscott@dealeronline.com
