Automotive Training Network -
The success of your dealership is dependent on the success of your BDC department and/or lead management processes. When ran properly, the leads generated and converted within your BDC, fuel your sales team and dealership with the opportunities they need to thrive in this business. To ensure this type of success in your role, and as a dealership, please take my advice…
1. Don’t expect game-changing results without a solid BDC strategy
Creating or developing a sound BDC strategy takes time and intentional effort. This strategy takes collaboration and the ability to dance with every change in the market. If you need more help with this, click here.
2. Don’t neglect training
This tip ties into the previous one because training should be an integral part of your strategy. What is your training process? Who trains who, with what content, and why? These questions are a great place to start when creating a training plan or development process. Training sets the professionals apart from the green peas, the underperforming employees from the top performers in the automotive industry. A Business Development Manager (BDM) cannot realistically expect consistent measurable results from an untrained staff.
3. Don’t measure the wrong metrics
You cannot grow what you don’t measure, so, what are you growing? There are a lot of metrics that should be monitored by a BDM– contact ratio, lead-to-appointment ratio, appointment-set and appointment-shown ratio, lead-to-sale ratio. Each of these areas are impacted by call volume, messaging delivered, and number of contact attempts. Don’t fall prey to only focusing on the number of units sold and lead counts. The number of sold vehicles will increase as the metrics referenced above are tracked and as the BDC is held accountable to these key performance indicators.
4. Don’t forget to have daily huddles
Communication is the lifeblood of your department. For your BDC to thrive, your team must be aware of their performance, whether good or bad. Here are a few questions to consider when holding daily meetings: What is our goal? What is our pace? What can I do to help? These team huddles should happen daily. They provide a growth environment and allow real-time teaching or coaching moments. Making these huddles part of the daily routine will foster a team environment which is essential in a dealership’s culture. Important: Keep these huddles around 10 minutes and no more than 15 minutes. Set a timer if necessary.
5. Don’t let the dealership politics negatively impact your department’s performance
The BDC should become the heartbeat of the dealership, pumping opportunities into each day. An excellent BDM will stay in their lane while maintaining control of the BDC‘s performance and efficiency as a unit. When politics or gossip creeps into the department – address it, shut it down, and refocus on what you control: productivity, performance, efficiency!