Best Practice #1

Create the Ultimate VIP Appointment

An effective technique to improve BDC appointment show ratios is to schedule all BDC appointments with a sales manager.  The word track is very simple and should be used when scheduling all appointments.

Once the customer has indicated they’re willing to come in, we say:

“Great…you know what I’m going to do?  I’m going to set it up so you can deal directly with my sales manager!  That will do 2 things for you.  One, speed up the whole process so you won’t have to be here all evening and secondly, ensure you get the best possible deal.  That doesn’t sound too bad now does it! So when you come in tonight I’d like you to ask for John.  He’s our manager and he’ll be expecting you!”

By scheduling the appointment with a sales manager it adds value to the consumer’s time, increases the probability that they show because “the boss” is expecting them and will personally be helping them.

Best Practice #2

Increasing Appointment Show Ratios

Obviously the primary goal of a BDC is to drive traffic via appointments that show.  Regrettably many BDC’s run with a show ratio somewhere between 35-50%.  This is entirely to low.

So if your BDC has a low show ratio here are a few things to consider:

• Low show ratio means we didn’t do a good job initially creating enough “reason and benefit” for the consumer to want to show.  We probably gave to much info or didn’t schedule and appointment with a specific date and time.

“I’ll try to make sometime Saturday” isn’t an appointment!

• Confirmation Calls:  Confirmation calls should be done the morning of the scheduled appointment unless you have a low contact ratio, in which case confirmation calls should be done the evening prior.

(Always monitor your contact ratio)

• Missed Appointment Calls:  Missed appointment calls should be made 20-30 minutes after agreed upon time.  Don’t leave missed appointment calls until the next day.  The longer you leave the prospect the higher the probability they’ll “hold off and wait” or worse…go somewhere else.

Best Practice #3

How to Sell More Vehicles from Unsold Showroom Traffic

For most organizations unsold showroom traffic is the largest lead source in dealership yet we fail to effectively manage the opportunities to their fullest potential.  Here are a few things you should do to maximize unsold showroom traffic (UST):

• Ensure every logged up in the CRM is called.  Not just once but multiple times.  If your team made 3 attempts a day for 7 days your contact ratio would go through the roof!  And that’s the problem; most stores don’t speak with enough of their UST.
• Always begin every conversation from a public relations standpoint.  Begin by saying “thank you” and “are there any questions I can answer for you?”
• Next you need to ensure the consumer found a vehicle on your lot they’d like to own.  So ask the question….”did you find a vehicle with us you think you’d really like to own?”  Vehicle confirmation is critical.  How many times do customers get landed on the wrong vehicle?
• Lastly you need to “force” and “isolate” the true objection.  What is really holding the customer back?  Many times sales people “assume” they know, which never a good idea.

Best Practice #4

10-15 Additional BDC Sales in 30 days of less:

As a management Team our ability to increase the daily outbound call volume of our BDC Reps could mean the difference of an additional 15 delivered units a month.  The reality is the average BDC Rep only makes about 35-50 outbound calls per day.   Woefully to low!

By increasing each Reps call volume by just 10 calls per day, in a 4 Rep BDC, here is what you can expect:

• 40 more calls per day or 880 over a 22-day work month
• 264 more conversations or a 30% contact ratio
• 53 more appointments or a 20% appointment ratio
• 32 more show room ups or 60% show ratio
• 10-15 more sales or 35%-50% closing ratio from shows

The compounding effect of just 10 more calls per day is huge.  This expectation of our people is fair, reasonable and obtainable.  In order to make this happen you must first know:

1. What is your current outbound call volume per Rep
2. What is your current contact ratio
3. What is your current appointment ratio from contacts
4. What is your current show rat
5. What is your current delivery rate

If you don’t know you need to know…call us we can help:  877.452.2753

As with every department, getting the right people into the right positions is critical.  If you place the “square peg in a round hole” it could mean the difference between success and failure.  We know what it takes to make a BDC successful and we know how to find the right people who will support proper activity levels and drive traffic.

We’ll help you find:

• BDC Manager
• BDC Team Leader
• BDC Representative

Effective recruitment and hiring enables us to select candidates who will enjoy the job, do it well, and stay on the job ensuring the dealer gets a consistent ROI on the department. To accomplish this we:

• Use tailored and targeted recruitment strategies.
• Screen the candidates carefully to make sure they are suited to the job.
• Conduct a minimum of 2 telephone interviews
• Conduct Script Reading and Role Play Calls
• Conduct Online Profile and Personality Testing
• Make sure candidates are fully aware of all the aspects of the job. Once they are on the job, we don’t want to hear: “I didn’t know I would have to. . .”

Recruitment strategies:

Recruitment takes time. For all BDC implementations, it takes over two weeks to get candidates through the process. We consider the following ways to make the job seeking public aware that we are recruiting:  Use government employment agencies and economic development agencies to identify suitable employment pools.

• Multiple postings using various Online Recruiting Sites
• Place advertisements in local newspapers
• Advise appropriate college career counselors
• List job openings on employment Web sites and our own Web site

We provide:

• Candidates who are ready go to work
• Pay Plans
• Job Descriptions
• Profile and Personality Assessment Reports
• Facing interviews scheduled with your management staff

Call now for a Price Quote:  877.452.2753

This week long workshop is actually 2 schools in 1.

The first 3 days is intense technique training where we show attendees what to say, how to say it, why they need to say it a certain way and most importantly what the client hears.  This technique training is then coupled with LIVE phone time (up to 4 hours a day).  Attendees make live calls to their respective client base from our facility and schedule appointments while away from the dealership. This is the only school where actual appointments are being set for the dealership during the training class.  The most intensive and proven practices are discussed and acted on during the first 3 days.

Our structure hasn’t changed in over 20 years of holding this class- every attendee learns by doing!  Everyone is held accountable to minimum daily standards, just as they should be at the dealership/BDC.

The last 2 days is the train-the-trainer school designed to show managers of all levels how a successful BDC should be set up, implemented and ran on a daily basis.  Managers learn how to execute routinely to capitalize on your investment!  BDC is about process execution and every attendee will master proven strategies to take your department to the next level.

Students attending the first 3 days will master:

• How to overcome phone reluctance
• Minimum daily expectations to ensure success
• How to maximize an inbound sales call
• How to schedule appointments from unsold showroom
• How to set solid appointments that actually show and buy
• How to overcome the 5 most common objections
• How to communicate and motivate Internet leads into the showroom
• How to schedule a minimum of 8 appointments a day when they go back to the dealership.
• And much, much more!

Students attending the last 2 days will understand:

• How to properly structure a BDC for sustained success
• How to properly staff the department to maximize profit potential
• Pay Plans which drive production and profitability
• Daily management techniques which will increase production
• Organizational requirements to ensure short and long term success
• Train the trainer strategies which improve effectiveness at all levels
• Which processes work and which don’t and why
• How to turn your BDC into a profit center

Your staff should attend if:

• No formal training has ever been received
• BDC Reps are not making 100+ calls per day
• BDC Reps are not speaking with 40 potential customers per day
• BDC Reps are not setting 8-10 appointments per day
• Low show ratio from scheduled appointments
• Appointments that show are not selling
• No real departmental process in place
• Low Internet sales
• Your BDC is NOT a Profit Center

·      And much, much more!

BDC Central gives an organization an unfiltered assessment of what’s actually happening in their BDC.  Unfortunately many dealerships don’t have the proper controls in place to accurately assess the activity, performance and proficiency levels of their BDC. In short they really don’t know what’s going on!  By leveraging our propriety software and existing dealership technology we can provide an organization amazing structure, control and accountability.

By utilizing BDC Central an organization can know in real time what the BDC activity and production levels are for the BDC at any given moment.

When you partner with PDS, you partner with a team of people that will be closely monitoring the activity and progression of the BDC. Consider this our way of being your “Eyes & Ears” of the department.  We do this in Following ways.

1.  BDC Tracker:  Real Time BDC Activity and Proficiency Management System that gives you the ability to track and analyze your BDC’s production.  Tracker identifies strengths and weaknesses; area’s of opportunity and applies real time solutions to ensure daily improvement.  With Tracker we can monitor:

• Accurate Lead Counts (Phone Ups, Internet Leads, etc.)
• Outbound Call Volume
• Contact Ratio
• Email Activity
• Appointment Ratio
• Appointment Show Ratio
• Appointment Closing Ratio

The BDC Tracker allows us to track these areas in real time.  Unlike with manual spreadsheets, which we have to continually updated, BDC Tracker gives you the ability to keep our finger on the pulse of the BDC THROUGHOUT THE DAY in order to maximize the day in progress.

2.  Online Help & Support Center:  Also known as The BDC Doctor. The ability to identify issues and apply real time solutions is the key to overall success. If you notice your BDC is under performing in an area, say low contact ratio or low appointment ratio, ask the BDC Doctor for possible causes and you’ll be provided with the answer and possible solutions.

3.  Call Manager:  A Program which allows us to evaluate and monitor your BDC’s adherence to the proper word tracks and processes while handling Incoming Sales and Service Calls.  These Call Shops are not done by calling your dealership and pretending to be a customer, but rather by dialing into your dealership’s existing Web-based Digital Call Monitoring system (Who’s Calling, Call Source, Call Bright, etc.).  This way, we are evaluating real conversations between your BDC and your customers in real world situations.  Calls are evaluated and dealership personnel are then provided with an evaluation report with in 24-48 hours.

4.  eBiz Manager:  A program which allows us to evaluate and monitor your BDC’s adherence and processing of Internet Leads.  eBiz Manager provides accountability by assessing the proficiency level of the individuals handling the internet leads; ensuring that the leads are being addressed immediately or in a timely manner and that the customers questions/concerns are being handled properly. Internet shops are evaluated and dealership personnel are then provided with an evaluation report with in 24-48 hours.

5.  Online Training Network (OTN):  A complete video library of our training is available 24/7 for reinforcement and educational training.  If personnel are struggling or you’ve added a new member to the team, OTN is available to maximize time.  OTN consists of training videos for Management, Sales, Service, BDC Tracker and how to grow Social Media for the dealership.  The training is broken out in separate video modules making it easy to use and east to integrate into daily training sessions.

BDC Central empowers an organization to have real time actionable information and apply the appropriate solution to ensure consistent improvement over time.

Understanding the key to BDC success is a combination of people, process and execution; Proactive Dealer Solutions offers dealers a turnkey solution, which ensures success.

We provide:

• HR Services – We help you find the right candidates to staff the department.  We find Rep’s who not only have the intellect to perform the necessary functions but also the internal drive to do it day in and day out.
• Pay Plans /Job Descriptions – Having the right pay plans in place will ensure the department isn’t over expensed guaranteeing the BDC is a profit center.
• Onsite Training - Our do as I do, hands on approach is the secret ingredient.  Our Performance Coaches not only provide the necessary tools and techniques but also demonstrate with live customers the power and impact of our approach.  Seeing is believing and the key to buy in from your personnel.
• BDC Tracker - Our stand-alone proprietary web-based software provides real time monitoring and assessment of the BDC ensuring management has actionable feedback and accountability.
• Online Training Videos - Over 30 hours of relevant and pertinent training is available 24/7.
• Mystery Shops – We monitor and evaluate inbound sales and service calls and mystery shop your website ensuring consistent compliance to proper techniques are utilized consistently.
• Performance Mentoring – Once mystery shops are performed mentoring sessions are held with underperforming Reps.
• End of Month Reports – Bringing it all together with a comprehensive month end report outlining areas of opportunity and a 30 day game plan to ensure we’re always improving.

Sales BDC

If there’s one thing your dealership needs every day it’s traffic.  We’ll train your operatives how create traffic daily through effective communication and lead management.  When we’re done your Reps will be able to handle every lead source:

• Phone Ups
• Internet Leads
• Unsold Traffic
• Owner Retention
• Database Mining
• Referral and Lead Gen

Service BDC

Whether it’s the sales floor or the service drive traffic is the key.  More opportunities lead to a drastic increase in RO count and dollars per RO.  Your Service Reps will master:

• Inbound Calls
• Delinquents
• Declined RO’s
• SOP
• Campaigns
• Seasonal Promotions
• New Car Clinics

Boot Camp is a must for all managers and BDC Reps if an organization is serious about ensuring long-term success and profitability.

Learn how to execute routinely and capitalize on your investment!

Each attendee will be fully evaluated throughout their time at this school all while learning how to drive a successful BDC.  Each attendee will be shown the power and results they can create through:  High Call Volume, High Contact Ratio, High Appointment Ratio and High Show Ratio.

There is only one reason an organization would consider shutting down a BDC…the expense has outpaced the profitability. BDC’s are meant to be a profit center for a dealer but regrettably most flounder or worse yet become an additional expense. Before you shut it down and waste your investment give the BDC Experts 90 days. Our Rehab program will turn your BDC around, invigorate your people, engage your management staff and double production in 90 days or less. We understand the critical components and how to jump start production.

Prior to visiting your store we’ll do an in-depth assessment of 10 key factors that determine BDC success or failure. Some of which are:

• Staffing: Not only having the right people in the right positions but are you currently under or over staffed?
• Pay Plans: Most organizations over expense the room through their pay plans and the pay plan actually prevents proper activity or production levels.
• Organizational Structure: Underperformance many times is due to lack of effective processes being in place.
• Activity Levels: The vast majority of BDC’s underperform simple because the activity levels, the number of outbound calls being made, are to low.

Once our initial assessment is complete we’ll outline a “growth opportunity” report which will clearly outline areas of opportunity and provide a detailed business plan to hit achievable benchmarks of performance in 90 or less.

For more information on the status of your BDC and what it’s current potential is we strongly recommend you take advantage of our complimentary BDC Health Check. Our BDC Health Check will provide you all the information you need to make and informed decision on how to proceed with your BDC turn around initiative.

Proactive Dealer Solutions has worked with thousands of dealers all over North America for over 20 years now.  We get asked all the time what is the secret to your success with automotive dealers?  The answer is simple we bring processes that work, and dedicated staff that works with dealers to create, rehabilitate, or expand a team of experts who work with management to grow automotive dealerships all over North America.

The bigger question is why have dealers waited so long to realize that Sales staff, Internet sales teams and Service teams teams are not the best people to generate business and communicate with customers all the time.  The answer is surprisingly simple, car dealers and management believe that the staff they have get the job done right.  The truth of the matter is, specialists working with the best processes in the industry and consistently doing the right thing all the time get it done. Your team of Sales, service and Internet professionals don’t have the time, training or expertise in most cases to get it done.

What happens now it most dealerships today is your staff does the best they can with limited training limited expertise and poor time management skills. From a customer perspective this just does not make sense. If you call a high-end hotel, or go into your local McDonald’s, the process is always the same and both strive for customer excellence to drive their businesses.

A great Process will beat activity every time!  Dealerships who adopt a better process and invest in a dedicated team to get it done will grow their dealership have happier customers and more business. The bigger question is can you afford in today’s tough automotive market for your competitors to adopt a process that creates a significant competitive advantage to grow their business and hope that your existing process can compete.  In today’s market growth will come at the expense of your competitors anyway!

Are you ready to dominate your local market?  In order to generate more business and have more happy customers you and you team will need to wake up to the new reality in the car business.

If you have questions, need answers, or would like a free road map for your automotive dealership, call our office at 1-877-452-2753 and will be happy to help!

Make 2012 or breakaway year at your automotive dealership or dealership group!

Ian Nethercott

Performance Coach

Proactive Dealer Solutions

1 877 452 2753

http://www.bdcexperts.com

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If you have questions, comments of feedback or you need more business at your dealership, we can help.

Call about our FREE HEALTH CHECK Today 1 877 452 2753

Ian Nethercott

Performance Coach

Proactive Dealer Solutions

http://www.bdcexperts.com

inethercott@bdcexperts.com