Many dealers prefer using internal BDCs so they can keep control of leads and processes. Other dealerships use an external BDC for cost, management and efficiency reasons. Just about every dealer believes it’s a choice: you either set up an internal BDC or outsource to a third-party virtual BDC.

Yet, some of the best efficiencies and results actually happen with a hybrid BDC solution. In a hybrid set up, an external BDC does most of the “heavy lifting” related to chasing down sales leads, then hands the hottest leads over to your internal BDC. On the service side, the external BDC handles most of your inbound calls, which many dealership service departments struggle to manage effectively.

A hybrid BDC solution is ideal for dealerships with size constraints on their internal BDC due to staffing, management and/or budget issues. Let’s say your dealership is an average store selling 100 to 150 cars per month. To handle 400 to 1,000 phone calls per week, you need four full-time people and one manager to oversee them.

Bottom line? It’s difficult to set up an internal BDC for less than $10,000 per month, and that’s on the shy side.

Of course, you could be one of those dealers that believe your salespeople should be able to make all the prospecting and campaign calls, and your service advisors should be able to handle all the inbound service inquiries. The reality is, most salespeople don’t have the personality, patience or phone skills necessary to make the requisite calls, and your service advisors should be spending their time with the customers in front of them, not on the phone setting appointments.

Now, let’s say you want to use a hybrid BDC solution. For about 25 to 30 percent of the cost of an internal BDC, you can outsource most of the heavy lifting type calls that include:

• Inbound service calls
• Outbound sales and service campaigns
• Sales and service appointment setting and confirmations
• Internet leads follow up
• Unsold showroom traffic follow up
• Declined service repairs follow up

Whenever an external BDC agent has a hot sales lead or sets a service appointment, they transfer the customer over to one of your internal BDC agents to finish the call. Your internal BDC agents deal with fewer calls and spend more time on the phone with your customers, delivering a better experience.

With this setup, the average dealership mentioned above could probably get by with two highly-skilled internal BDC agents, versus the four agents plus a manager. The cost may be the same or even slightly less, but your ROI will be significantly higher.

The nice thing about a hybrid BDC solution is that you can decide which tasks you want your internal BDC to perform based on your staff’s skill sets. For example, maybe your internal BDC takes and makes all inbound and outbound calls, while the external BDC follows up with Internet leads and unsold showroom traffic.

The key to maximizing your ROI is taking the time to identify the strengths and weaknesses inherent in your current phone processes. Then, outsource to an external BDC to cover areas of weakness, while freeing up your internal BDC to focus more time on areas of strength.  

After switching to a hybrid BDC solution, it’s not unusual for a dealership to see immediate increases in service and sales appointments, as well as RO count and corresponding revenue. Typical results include:

• 25% of outbound service calls are eliminated when an external BDC schedules and confirms service appointments
• 72% of inbound service calls are converted into appointments
• 97% of calls result in additional information gathering on customer
• 84% customer contact rate with two valid phone numbers

External BDC agents are trained to stick to scripts, and therefore tend to be more effective at collecting valuable customer data such as emails, phone numbers and current addresses. This data contributes to higher marketing campaign response rates.

But the primary reason why a hybrid BDC solution is so effective is that it allows your staff to focus their attention on the customers in front of them. You still get to keep control over your branding, messaging, lead-handling and other processes. Yet, instead of having to sort through 100 leads to find the hand-raisers, your external BDC does that for you, then hands over the 20 people who responded and are actively seeking assistance.

The next time your internal BDC is experiencing overwhelm, you may want to try a hybrid BDC solution to ease your load, improve customer experience and boost sales and service revenue.

Manufacturers, dealerships and vendors are all rolling out digital retailing initiatives to sell vehicles online. But some dealers remain skeptical and believe that their customers don’t really want to buy cars online, or aren’t ready for that step yet.

Car shoppers already use the Internet to research brands and models, buy insurance and look for dealers. How many consumers would start the purchase process online, if the option were available?

Let’s look at some research. According to Cox Automotive’s “Future of Digital Retail Study” released earlier this year, 83 percent of consumers want to do one or more steps of the purchase process online, and 85 percent said they would be more likely to buy from a dealership that offers at least one component of digital retailing.

In a separate 2017 survey conducted by Capgemini Consulting, just 42 percent of consumers said they were “likely” or “very likely” to buy a car online in the future. Another 2017 study by Root & Associates/CDK found that 53 percent of consumers said they were “very” or “extremely” likely to conduct the entire car purchase online.

I think one reason why there is so much disparity is because as an industry, there is very little consensus yet on what the online car-buying experience looks like. Everyone talks about the Amazon shopping experience, but we all know that buying a car is not as simple as placing it in a shopping cart and paying with a credit card.

Significant obstacles still exist for car shoppers who do want to buy online, including:

• Accurate, final price quotes that include all variables such as credit scores, local taxes and fees
• Precise trade-in valuations
• Consumer expectations of credit and financing abilities
• Compliance
• State laws that require documents to have a wet signature

However, new technology and tools have already eliminated, or are in the process of eliminating, these obstacles. So…assuming that in the next couple years none of these obstacles are an issue, does that mean 50 percent to 80 percent of customers will rush to purchase online?

Not likely. According to the Cox Automotive report, 89 percent of consumers said they would still want to sign final documents at the dealership, and 80 percent said they would never purchase without a test drive.

According to the Capgemini report, 71 percent of car buyers still want to take a test drive and see the car in real life.

At ELEAD1ONE, we project consumer adoption rates will be slow. Within two years, five to ten percent of consumers will complete some of the purchase process online. In three to five years, that will grow to 20 or 30 percent.

So, if you are skeptical about digital retailing, does this mean you are vindicated and that you don’t have to worry about offering an online car-buying solution?

I would argue, no. The vast majority of car shoppers are still unhappy with the car-purchasing process. The three major reasons they cite are time, convenience and pressure from car salespeople.

More than half of car buyers are willing to try a new solution if it will save them time, be more convenient and free them from the high-pressure environment of a dealership. Why not find a solution that works with, and can be integrated into, your current sales process to provide them with this experience?

Six out of ten consumers would still want help from the dealership staff, even if they could purchase online. Specifically, they want help from product and technology experts who can help them through online inventory selection, trade-in valuation and financing processes.

This still takes time, but remember that time is relative. People value their time at home differently than they value their time spent at a dealership. When they are ready, all they have to do is come in for a test drive, make the final decision, sign the papers and pick up the keys. This should reduce their total time in the dealership from two to three hours to half an hour or less.

Giving your customers more control over the purchasing process now will give your dealership the edge as purchasing online becomes more mainstream.

If you’re concerned that digital retailing will take away your control of the sales process or reduce profit margins, don’t be. Choose your solution wisely. Most digital retailing products in development are designed to keep dealerships involved in the purchase process. You can retain complete control over pricing. The only requirement will be designing a new approach to selling that’s more consultative in nature than closing.

Ultimately, this is what customers want and where the industry is going. The change is happening now and will continue over the next decade. The sooner you meet your customers’ expectations, the more benefits you will reap.

As a salesperson, do you wait for leads and ups, or do you go out and actively prospect for new customers?  No matter how great a salesperson you are, sales is a numbers game. If you want to sell more, you need to talk to more people. If you aren’t talking to enough people, you need to prospect.

I believe that for the most part, prospecting is a lost art. In today’s world, many salespeople believe that posting on social media constitutes prospecting. Although it could be considered a form of prospecting, it’s not nearly enough.

Nothing beats genuine, in-person connections. Prospecting is the art of cultivating mutually beneficial relationships, which means you should not be prospecting just so that you can make sales. That will happen as a byproduct, but it’s not your goal.

Prospecting is really about making friends—lots and lots of friends, and treating them well. Here are a few tips.

Talk to Strangers

We often tell our kids, “don’t talk to strangers,” but adults with successful sales careers know to skip this advice. You want to talk to as many people as possible, wherever you go.

Think about all the business establishments you frequent on a regular basis; restaurants, bars, dry cleaners, gas stations and banks, for example. Do you strike up friendly conversations with the people who work at these establishments? Do they know what you do for a living? Be proud of what you do. You provide a much-needed service. Almost everyone drives a car. 

Find the time to attend community and social events. Talk to people and take an interest in what they do. Don’t try to sell them anything. Offer to exchange contact information in case you can help each other out in the future. Then mean what you say. If you can help them out in any way, do so.

Be Social

Social media can be used as a tool to help you prospect, but you have to be careful what you post. Are you posting a lot of selfies standing in front of vehicles you want to sell? Are you posting messages advertising your dealership’s sales or promoting yourself as a salesperson?

Social media is for sharing, not selling. As a salesperson, use these platforms to share useful information that a car shopper might want to know. For example, what does MSRP mean? Tips for maintaining your car. Tips on how to find a great deal. If you provide genuine value to your network of family and friends, they will pay attention to you. 

Become a Subject Matter Expert (SME)

If you sell cars for a living, you should be an expert on cars. Share your knowledge without looking for a sale in return. When you are helpful and provide useful information, people will like you. If people like you, they will remember you when it’s time to buy a car, or when they hear that a friend wants to buy a car.

I have done this all my life. I try to help people get what they want. If someone needs something, I will point them in the direction of someone else who can help them, even if it does not benefit me at the time. Why? Because paying it forward brings good things back to you.

Ask for Referrals

Keep in touch with every customer to whom you sold a vehicle. At some point, you’ll ask them for a referral. Just don’t be a pain about it. Don’t always ask for a referral. Check in with your customers on a regular basis, and only ask for referrals every third or fourth time.  The worst they can say is no.

Know Your Numbers

How much income do you want to make? How many cars do you have to sell per month to make that income? Use the metrics in your dealership CRM to help you set some prospecting goals.

Your lead-to-appointment ratio and appointment closing ratio are probably pretty consistent. So, how many conversations with new prospects do you need on a monthly basis in order to set a certain number of appointments? One hundred? Two hundred?

Divide that number by working days in a month and make those conversations a priority. Know your number, whether it’s six or twelve conversations a day. Do whatever it takes to meet your goal on a daily basis.

If you want to be successful in sales, learning how to prospect is a must. Yes, it’s work, but it doesn’t have to be arduous. Talking to people, taking a genuine interest in what they do and helping them achieve their goals should be fun and rewarding, on a personal level as well as a professional level.

Did you know that the self-improvement industry in the U.S. is a $10 billion market? That means there are a lot of people out there who are not achieving their goals. Of course, there are also dozens, if not hundreds of self-help gurus taking advantage of this situation and dishing out advice on how to be successful.

If only success were as simple as drinking a bottle of magic formula.

The reality is, whether you’re selling cars or performing oil changes, only you are in control of how successful you will be. Ultimately, it’s up to you to create your own formula for success. Expect it to take time and allow plenty of room for trial and error.

When I started selling cars many years ago, I learned about the three P’s: preparation, practice and persistence. In retrospect, this formula has served me very well throughout my career, so I thought I would share it with you.

Preparation

Success requires mastery. Mastery requires knowledge. To gain knowledge requires research and preparation. When you get an Internet lead, do you jump right on the phone to call the person or do you take a few minutes to review their questions and research the answers?

If you have a job interview scheduled, do you research the company’s products and services before your appointment? Do you prepare for the interview by creating and rehearsing answers to commonly asked questions?

Preparation is particularly vital if you are starting out in your career or starting a new position. As you gain mastery of an action and knowledge of a subject, you won’t have to spend as much time in preparation mode.

Take the time to research and prepare for phone calls, meetings, presentations and projects that are assigned to you. Preparedness elevates your image as a professional and helps you to appear calm, collected and knowledgeable. No matter how smart you are, “winging it” will only get you so far in life and in your career.

Practice

Everyone knows that the more you repeat an action, the better you will become at that action. This applies to selling cars, swinging at golf balls or reconciling balance sheets.

Yet, repetition alone is not guaranteed to improve your skill levels. You have to be able to evaluate your practice, identify and learn from mistakes, adjust your approach and try new methods. If you have a 12 handicap, you’ll never learn how to be a scratch golfer without making adjustments to your swing.

I call this proactive practice. If you practice something every day and don’t see an improvement in your results, you need to change something.

If you’re not sure what to change, identify several people who have achieved success in your field. Emulate and practice their actions. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel when someone else has already figured out how to be successful at something. Practice, evaluate, identify, learn, adjust, try, repeat.

Persistence

One of the biggest mistakes I see young (and some mature) professionals make is to rely on motivation to propel them into action. Successful people never wait until they feel motivated to do something. Do you think you will ever feel motivated to make 50 sales calls? I never did.

Motivation does not fuel persistence. Persistence fuels motivation. Get on the phone and start making the calls, even if you really don’t feel like it. Start that horrible project you’ve been putting off even though you’d rather visit your dentist to get a tooth pulled.

When one of those calls turns into a sale, guess what? You’ll suddenly feel motivated to keep dialing. When the horrible project is finished, you’ll feel a huge sense of relief and ready to take on another, even bigger project.

The road to success is littered with tasks that are boring and mundane, but absolutely necessary. To be successful, you must do the things you don’t THINK you have time to do. If you take the time to do what others won't do, you will be miles ahead of them in terms of success. 

 Remember, nothing pays like persistence.

The three P’s are the primary ingredients in my magic formula for success. They have served me well, but ultimately, only you can decide what works for you. What’s in your bottle of magic formula?

Atlanta, GA – April 24, 2018 – ELEAD1ONE today released a free eBook called “The Auto Dealer’s Guide to Digital Retailing.” Designed to be a resource for dealers, the eBook presents an in-depth review of the challenges involved with purchasing a vehicle online, and of current consumer and dealer expectations. Additionally, the eBook shares practical tips on how to prepare a dealership for changes associated with digital retailing.

“Dealers can no longer ignore rising consumer demand to complete at least some of the vehicle purchase process online, but many dealers have concerns about the technology,” said Bill Wittenmyer, Partner of ELEAD1ONE. “Our vision is that dealerships will remain central to the online car-buying process. This eBook presents a business model that expands opportunities, not limits them.”

“The Auto Dealer’s Guide to Digital Retailing” provides guidance on how to integrate online car-buying with a dealership’s current sales process. Industry sales trainers Jim Ziegler and Mark Tewart contribute their insights and advice for dealers who are considering implementing a digital retailing solution.

The eBook addresses process changes that will inevitably occur due to an online car-buying process, including staff roles and responsibilities. A digital retailing solution checklist is provided for dealers in the process of researching vendors.

“Even though consumer adoption rates for complete transactions online will be relatively slow, dealers need to act quickly before third-party solutions gain brand awareness and market share among car shoppers,” said Wittenmyer.

Download your free eBook by clicking on this link: “The Auto Dealer’s Guide to Digital Retailing.”

For more information about ELEAD1ONE visit http://www.elead-crm.com.

About ELEAD1ONE

ELEAD1ONE, the benchmark in automotive software, helps dealers bridge the gap between sales, service, and marketing operations. The company’s automotive-only contact center, CRM, and service drive technologies are the foundations of their unique suite of products that drive its clients forward through strategic business advantage. Headquartered in Georgia, ELEAD1ONE has over 1,500 employees nationwide and serves more than 8,000 dealerships across the United States and Canada, including six of the top ten dealer groups.

ELEAD1ONE continues to lead the industry standard by providing insight to the community, identifying trends, and through the continuous development of personalized retail solutions that help dealers operate more profitably. For more information, visit our Website, like us on Facebook, YouTube, or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Is your dealership planning to implement a digital retailing solution this year? If so, you’re not alone. According to a 2017 study by Root & Associates and CDK Global, more than half of dealership management has expressed interest in a digital retailing solution for their website.

Now that more tools are becoming available, it won’t be long before a small percentage of car buyers complete at least part of the purchase process online.

One of the first questions that dealers should ask when implementing a new solution is, “How can we best serve our customers during their online car-buying journey?”

It’s a simple question, but the answer is not.

The first thing to consider is that until now, your websites and marketing strategies have been designed to encourage customers to call or submit a lead, make an appointment and come to your dealership.

The goal is different with digital retailing. You want customers to visit your website to start the purchase process. At some point the vast majority (more than 80 percent) will come to your dealership for a test drive and/or to complete paperwork.

How will you transition the online process to an offline process?

This is where your staff comes in, and why I see dealerships remaining central to the digital retailing process. Online car shoppers need you. They need you for your inventory selection, they need you to accept their trade-ins and many will need your help to arrange finance.

What they don’t need is a salesperson trying to close them. They’ve already made the decision to buy. Online customers need guidance and information; not closing or phone tactics designed to “just get them in.”

It’s important to realize that digital retailing is not just another lead generation tool. It is a tool designed to allow the customer to complete one, some or all parts of the purchase process at their convenience, not yours.

Concierge or Combos?

According to Cox Automotive’s Future of Digital Retail Study, online car buyers prefer staff who are “product specialists,” defined as highly knowledgeable about vehicle specs, features, technology, models and trim levels.

Customers also need someone who is knowledgeable about your digital retailing solution software and sales process, so they can get help navigating through the various steps.

Buying a car is still a pretty complex process, and most people will have questions or needs that can’t be addressed online.

To create the best online customer experience will probably require some experimentation. Options for new roles and responsibilities in your dealership include:

• Digital sales specialist or concierge to facilitate the online car-buying process
• BDC agents trained to facilitate the online car-buying process
• Product and/or brand specialists to answer questions and help with selection
• High touch, combination sales/F&I managers that oversee the entire process from A to Z

There seems to be a consensus among industry experts that a hybrid approach including several of these roles might emerge. Perhaps you have a combination Sales/F&I manager that oversees the process, with some portions facilitated by a concierge or product specialist.

Alternately, BDC agents guide customers through their journey to a certain point, then hand the deals over to the combination Sales/F&I Manager.

Also, keep in mind that a small percentage of customers will want the new vehicle delivered to their home or work. Who has this responsibility? Ideally, a product specialist who can explain features and take the customer for a post-purchase test drive.

Very likely several new staffing models will emerge as viable, and which one you choose will depend upon how closely it adheres to your desired sales process.

To be clear, I’m not saying the role of the traditional car salesperson is going away. Not yet, anyway. But how your salespeople approach and communicate with online customers is very different than how they interact with a showroom up.

As turnover in your sales force naturally occurs, you might be able to replace some of them with product specialists and concierges.

Look at the young adults who work at Best Buy or Apple. They know their products and they’re trained to give an excellent customer experience. If you can find people with a similar mindset to help with the digital retailing process, your customers’ enthusiasm and satisfaction levels will skyrocket.

How do you think digital retailing will change staff roles and responsibilities in your dealership? Are you ready to make the leap into digital retailing?

ELEAD1ONE partner Bill Wittenmyer explains the difference between a dealership having a Business Development Center versus a Business Follow-Up Center.

When you call a business to seek assistance or information, what irritates you the most: the seemingly impossible chore of navigating phone trees to get to a live person; the options that are irrelevant to you; or the fact that, when you do get somebody, they’re the wrong person and have to transfer you?

Probably all of them! Well, the same is true for your customers. What do they experience when calling into your dealership? Do you even know?

Sadly, many dealers place far too much faith in their phone processes, people and technology. Just because your dealership has call monitoring doesn’t mean your customers are well cared for. In fact, those calls may not even be listened to -- except, perhaps, at the end of the month when a manager is scrambling for those few extra units to close the month.

Like any technology, just because you pay for it doesn’t mean it’s getting used. The fact is, if you’re not using it, you’d be better off with no automated phone system and a simple receptionist. Why? Because then your customers could at least talk to a live person.

What do you think customers do when they get irritated because they can’t talk to someone at your dealership? They hang up and call your competitor! Here’s a true story for you. Not too long ago I called into a BMW dealership in an attempt to speak to the General Manager. After countless automated transfers and a phone tree which asked me to press “1” for service etc., it took me 1 minute and 32 seconds to finally speak to a live person. And, perhaps even worse, guess what WAS NOT an option? SALES! Seriously. You would think that sales would have made the cut when configuring that phone system. Even accounting was an option!

Make it a point to inspect what you expect. I’m guessing that every dealer out there expects their phones to be answered. They also probably expect that a customer can easily navigate to the desired department and be appropriately handled once they reach a live person.

Well, the point is, you won’t know how horrible (or wonderful) your customer experience is via your phone system until you start doing one thing regularly:

Mystery shop your own store.

Place yourself in your customer’s shoes and regularly call into the dealership attempting to get different departments – and see what happens. To do this effectively, you (or a manager) should be away from the store and call in with a phone other than your cell, in order to stay truly anonymous. Employees will naturally try to answer quickly if they see that it’s you calling.

Pay attention to how many times you’re transferred; how many options you are forced to choose to get to whomever you wish to reach; and how long it takes you to speak to a live person. If it takes any longer than 30 seconds, there’s something wrong. If you get irritated, so do your customers. And that means you’re probably losing opportunities in sales and service. You can’t afford to miss any revenue or give it up to your competition.

Make sure any technology you adopt enhances the customer experience while also making your dealership more efficient. Efficiency gets thrown out the window if you’re losing customers.

There are many ways you can use technology or third party BDCs to provide your customers with a better experience. But don’t use any technology at the expense of your customer experience.

Start mystery shopping your dealership and ensure you and your management team regularly listen to calls to monitor what’s happening when customers call in. Identifying any points of customer friction, sooner rather than later, will decrease missed opportunities and, because of that, you can capture more business and revenue.