Sales & Marketing
Using Your BDC To Cut Expenses And Increase Profit
By Forrest Scott
If you are one of those people who have read DEALER magazine religiously and have followed my articles and exercised my recommendations regarding business development centers, you should be in a position to truly save a substantial percentage of your advertising budget.
This is one of the seasons to truly capitalize on the fact that you have a business development center. By now you have been collecting email addresses for a few years and the database should be substantial. What this means is that you are now ready to market aggressively at virtually no cost.
As we enter the holiday season we face a few basic facts.
1. The dealership would like to wish their customers and prospects a happy holiday season.
2. Reaching customers at this time of year is difficult.
3. Cost to advertise typically goes up as a result of the holiday marketers making major media buys.
4. TV and radio spots seem to get lost in the clutter.
5. Newspaper advertisements get seen because automobile dealers are typically placed in their own section. The problem with this is that a customer must be in the market to buy or they skip the entire section, When this happens, we naturally lose the impulse buyer.
6. Keeping customers focused on routine maintenance for their vehicles is extremely difficult.
The solution is to market aggressively using the Internet. Email is great... it goes directly to the person you want with out having to pass a secretary. Since most people have their own mailbox, you don't have to worry about your advertisement getting thrown out before the customer sees it, as we all know this happens easily with newspaper or direct mail.
Today, it is easier than ever to create and produce great looking marketing pieces. Once this is done, simply send it to the desired audience. Remember you have total control over this process. You can create as many pieces as you like and you can send it to one person or a thousand all for the same price nothing. You may become concerned when you sort the database and you find that you only have what you think is a small number to mail to. Don't panic, this is not an uncommon feeling. Please note that while the database may seem small, the important part is not size, it's quality. Through the period of time you have had your business development center, a major aspect has been the collection of email addresses and quality demographic information. This is why I say quantity is not the important part. It is with this quality database that you are now able to market and reach potential buyers more precisely, which also enables you to have almost obscene closing percentages with these customers.
Additionally, you should be coming close to the point where you will be able to begin raiding parts of your neighboring dealers' databases. To some dealers, this is the most exciting part of the BDC. In my next article, I will review this form of marketing.
Forrest Scott is president of Dynamic Marketing Strategies Inc. fscott@dealeronline.com
