Sales & Marketing
Is Your Dealership Ready For a BDC?
By Forrest Scott
The fact of the matter is, most dealerships are not. Unfortunately, many dealerships that have installed a business development center (BDC) should not have. At least not at the time they did. While there are numerous and significant reasons why a dealership should install a BDC, there are also very good reasons for holding off for a while. Personally, I believe a BDC will be in most dealerships in the not too distant future. However, timing is an important issue and installing a BDC at the wrong time is worse than not doing it at all.
Oftentimes a dealership decides to install a BDC for reasons such as: 1. A neighboring dealership has installed a BDC. 2. It's the new fad. 3. The dealer heard it's a great thing at his or her twenty-group. 4. The dealer or general manager is frustrated with the sales floor. 5. The dealer simply wants to be first in the area with a BDC. While these reasons sound rational, there may be a problem in the planning and the details. A BDC is definitely a great way to increase the level and quality of showroom follow-up, service follow-up, database management, customer relations and satisfaction, inbound telephone calls and prospecting. However, without proper planning, strategy and commitments in place prior to installation, the project ultimately will fail.
Before a dealership should install a BDC, management should perform a careful review of its dealership. Essentially this review is an audit of the current policies, procedures, facilities and personnel of the dealership.
One of the most difficult challenges in reviewing a dealership prior to installing a BDC is getting all of the managers to be honest in the evaluation process. Please understand that what I am referring to is facing the cold hard reality of what is truly happening in your dealership. I am not saying that managers intentionally set out to deceive. When managers are in the position of having to evaluate their departments, there seems to be a natural tendency to look at things as they should be rather than how they really are. As an example, every sales manager knows he should be fully aware of how many people visited the showroom, how many test drives were given, how many phone-ups were made each day, how many T.O.s, the closing percentages of each salesperson and the list goes on. Fact is, most dealers admit these things are not properly monitored in their store and the sales managers most often state that they are. I believe the difference of opinion is a lot like New Year's resolutions. They begin with the best of intentions but reality is another thing. When it comes to the dealership review, reality is the only thing that matters. Failing to deal with reality defeats the effort and seriously threatens the success of your BDC launch.
When you are performing your dealership review you need to ask direct questions which require direct answers. As an example, during a review of a dealership I asked the sales manager how many ups they had the previous month. He stated he did not know the exact figure but he was glad they were holding their own even though traffic was down. I asked how he knew traffic was down and his response was that his salespeople told him. I then asked him how he evaluated his salespeople if he didn't know their closing percentages. He stated that he did know the closing percentages because his salespeople gave them to him at the end of each month. He proceeded to tell me that he really didn't think his dealership needed a BDC because his people were doing a great job without one. My curiosity got the better of me and I asked what the group's closing percentage was. The sales manager told me that the dealership's closing percentage was 85 percent. At this point I terminated the review and told the dealer he would be wiser to spend his time and money working on other issues.
Determining and creating the questions to ask can be extremely time consuming. DON'T PANIC. I have prepared a 12-page set of questions/profile I like to use and have found this format tremendously helpful. If you would like to receive a complimentary copy please feel free to contact me through the magazine as directed below and I will be happy to send it to you.
Like any new venture, proper planning is crucial. You wouldn't build a new dealership without a blueprint. What I am recommending is that you create a blueprint for your BDC before you begin. Please note that a consultant's design for a BDC, in my opinion, only becomes a blueprint when the consultant has visited your dealership, asked the right questions, received honest answers and has a true feel for your dealership.
While the planning stages of a BDC can be time-consuming, the benefits are certainly worth the effort.
Forrest Scott is president of Dynamic Marketing Strategies Inc. fscott@dealeronline.com
