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Is your store ready for a BDC? It's a question that more and more car dealerships are asking themselves every day. Profit margins are shrinking and customers are more knowledgeable than ever before. Thanks to the Internet, the consumer knows what new incentives there are, what the dealer pays for the car, and even how much hold back the dealer is given by the manufacturer. According to Internet World Stats, 235 million people (roughly 78% of the population) in the use the World Wide Web. So, the real question we should be asking ourselves is not, 'Is our store ready?' but, 'When?' And, 'How do we start?'

Smarter Opportunity Management

We all know that there are only two ways to increase business; increasing the number of opportunities, or managing opportunities better. As a good business practice, managing and tracking opportunities better is something that we should all strive for. The best way to do this is through a Business Development Center. Managing your opportunities better allows you to increase your bottom line without having to spend more money.

There are a couple of factors here that are involved. One of those factors involves having a centralized location with systems and processes in place to record the data that we need to evaluate which sources produce, and which do not. Dealerships are already paying a specific dollar amount for every customer that walks through the door, makes a phone call, or sends an email. The goal should be to lower the dollar amount spent per opportunity while increasing the number of opportunities available. Sounds impossible, right? Not if we know where our leads are coming from and then eliminating advertising sources that are not producing the results we want.

Assembly Line Efficiency

Business Development Centers allow the dealer to operate more efficiently and are more cost effective. For example, instead of spending the money to train twelve sales employees on proper handling and recording of data on every prospect, the dealer now only has to spend money to train one or two. These BDC reps are specifically trained in the art of selling the appointment, nothing else. The sales people are trained to sell the cars, the sales managers are trained to manage sales, and one could even take it a step further and train delivery coordinators to deliver the cars. After all, there is a reason the assembly line was created - to create a finished product much faster than conventional methods. And, in this case, we're moving metal over the curb. There should be a process and a plan of action for handling all leads and phone calls by a dealership to get to the end result quicker, which is to move metal over the curb.

Everyone is vying for a piece of the market, and to secure the biggest piece for the least amount of money, we need to look at streamlining processes, training specific people to perform specific tasks, and then have it tracked and managed properly.

Seizing Opportunities First

Before we can institute the assembly line, we have to first get that customer! What is the most effective technique that will give us the greatest chance of reaching that customer first? Responding to that prospect the second we get an email. We must be the very first person to contact them while they are still sitting in front of their computer. If we wait to call them, we'll undoubtedly reach them at an inopportune time, if at all. Or, we may have already lost them to our competition. Get to that customer first, and odds are they will buy from you. Set an appointment and make sure they follow through on it, and your chances go up even more.

Don't Fail to Plan

Now I know the rebuttals that are already forming in your head. 'My store doesn't have enough leads coming in to justify a BDC.' Or, 'I don't have the money to invest,' and, 'I don't have anyone to run or manage it.' My suggestion is to start small. First invest time into researching what tools you need to put into place to better track your data. Once you have that in place, invest in a person who is good with customers, teachable, and hungry to learn. If all you do is hire a person to respond to customers immediately, it will make a tremendous difference.

Dealers don't plan to fail, they simply fail to plan. It's time to wake up, smell the coffee and get with the times. This isn't a flavor of the month, and it isn't going to be your cure-all, but it will be a major factor if you want to have any type of success. When you start putting all the pieces of the puzzle together and work systematically to achieve your desired goals, there is no way for you to fail. So, when you ask 'Do we need a BDC/appointment setter?' Yes, you do!

Shane Helms is a Dealer Performance Consultant for The Cobalt Group.