Many dealerships have implemented a BDC in some form into their dealerships.  I have learned that all BDC are NOT created the same which is totally okay.  So regardless of how your BDC is set up do you have a process for the customer to move efficiently and seemlessly from the BDC operator to the sales person?

1.  Are you using your CRM effectively?

I think a CRM is the dealerships most important investment next to inventory.  I am always amazed at how it isn't required to be used or isn't used to its fullest potential.  Ideally any communication or actions taken with a customer are recorded in the CRM.  If this is the case the sales person will be able to get a profile of the customer that is arriving.  Writing a note isn't good enough.  The notes must be detailed with specifics of conversations between the BDC operator and the customer.  A sales person should be able to form a plan on how they will "sell" or approach the customers.  A plan regarding what inventory to show, what finance options to highlight and what their trade is.

2.  Are you ready on the floor?

Given that you have enough information are you ready for the customer to show up.  My recommendation has always been to pull up the car of interest and right next to it pull up another car that they may be interested in.  Perhaps the other car is inventory you need to get rid of or one you can generate more gross on.  Nothing is worse then when a customer comes into the dealership and realizes that no one knew they were coming.  You just gave the customer a reason to think you aren't there for them and you just don't care. 

The most common objection I hear from managers and sales people to doing this is that they only show up 60% of the time.  Well look at it this way, if you are selling 40% of the time and doing this little task can get you to 50% of the time what kind of difference would that make in your sales, not to mention your online reputation.

3. Sales people did you follow up in CRM?

Notes and information in the CRM prior to the appointment are important, but just as important are notes in the CRM after the appointment shows.  The more detailed the better.  If you don't sell the car and you have notes managers will have a better understanding as to why?  Do you need more training?  Did they evaluate trades to high?  Do they have the wrong inventory? Also the manager, you and BDC operator can design a strategy to hopefully still make the sale.

At the end of the day have a process, refine the process and use the process.  Make sure that all departments are communicating.  Measure your success by watching your grosses and close percentages.

I am a big believer of a full scale e-commerce strategy for dealerships.  Customers obviously prefer to shop on line then visit a dealership.  Duh!  But there is a difference between purchasing and shopping. 

The 20+ age group prefers to buy everything on line or so it seems.  So where does a dealership fit in?  How to we provide the convenience they demand, build customer service and loyalty and not lost the part of the population that wants to see what they buy?  Can a dealership have a process and the money to satisfy everyone?

I have seen a lot of stats out there, typically by those selling the online digital retailing.  The fact of the matter is you have to choose what is best for your market, your people and your process. 

The industry is obviously trying to capture this online conversion with tools like Dealer.com's digital retailing and many others.  I think the problems are two fold:  the technology is trying to do to much and the dealerships don't know how to build loyalty/customer experience through this experience.

For the first part the technology I think is to complicated for the end user.  Instead of walking first the industry might be trying to run to fast.  I don't know if we truly understand the customers expectations.  Instead of doing it all online it might be better to revise the technology so that the customer can fill in their information that is used in each department so they aren't repeating it over and over.  Also allow them to upload things like insurance cards, driver's license, proof of income, etc.  Do they really expect the system to be so seamless that they can just sign and drive?  Also why do all the departments have to be covered at once?  Is it necessary for pre-approvals/approvals to happen online when we can't verify anything or get signatures?

Even if the process could be that seamless are stores really ready to handle it?  For dealerships that do digital retailing already is it handled like a deal or a lead?  If it is handled like a lead you are wasting the money on the tool because you don't need it because you don't use it.  If we keep it simple we can execute a process in the stores that is more beneficial for everyone.

When a customer goes online allow them to upload their documentation and information, have the salesperson/BDC set the appointment, have the car pulled up and all their documentation organized and ready.  If the customer wants to figure out a payment or lease this too can be done online, that is pretty easy.  This alone with expedite the process.  It will still allow customers the opportunity to ask questions, take a test drive, etc.  It will also allow for sales people to build rapport.

I can't tell you how many times I have watch a customer with an appointment sit there for 5 minutes to get a sales person, another 5-10 minutes to find the care, then if they want the car waiting for the box to open up.  An online tool won't help dealerships that work with this kind of process.  I think this is what customers complain about and be honest there are to many dealerships doing business this way.

I think the industry is on its way to something but we might be thinking on to grand of a scale!  Let's keep it simple.

Websites are big business for dealers and the vendors that provide them.  I often times am frustrated by the lack of mobility offered with the OEM recommended website providers.  Typically there are a few templates to choose from and those all come with limitations.  That being said I often wonder why we focus on the banner ads that slide across the home page that so many dealers resort to.  

On the one hand they do look nice and offer an opportunity to promoted the monthly specials, however if you look at a heat map the most common place visitors visit are the inventory pages.  In fact one study sites that only up to 5% of visitors actually click on the banner. And the clicks get worse the deeper you go in the slide show. Are the low stats because the specials aren't engaging or do visitors have banneritis?  Probably a combination depending on the dealership.

So why don't we put those front and center instead of our inventory which is the most popular pages to visit?  On a website to increase conversion you want to keep it simple.  Make the information that they are looking for readily available.  Test your website with an A/B test by offering two home pages.  One with banner ads and the other with quick links for the following most popular destinations on a dealership  website.

• Schedule Service
• Today’s Deals
• Lease Specials
• Search New
• Search Used
• Value Your Trade-In
• Get Pre-Approved

If you are running any kind of paid digital advertising like retargeting, PPC, facebook ads, etc.  it would be really interesting to see if bounce rates go down.  Even with these campaigns you can send the visitor to special pages that engage based on the content of the ads.  For example, if you are running a $199 lease on a Chevy make that ad click to a page that shows that vehicle up top right away and then quick links to other lease specials or other vehicles of a similar type or price.

An external link is a hyperlink on a website other than your own but points back to your website.  Many SEO companies believe that external links are important to attain good SEO rankings.  Beingseen360.com does believe that external links are part of the very big SEO equation but once again not at any cost.  Once again it must make sense.

External linking at any cost won’t win you any points with search engines.  They actually may hurt you.  I have worked with SEO companies in the past that will go out and link to different blogs, local radio stations or post event on our facebook pages to link the other way.  It all looks interesting but what good is it really doing.  Don’t do it just to do it.

First understand what search engines are looking for with external links. RELEVANCY AND POPULARITY.

 When doing external links the more relevant the page you are putting your link on the better.  For example, most dealers are on Cars.com or Autotrader, and on your individual vehicle listing pages and dealer profile page there is a link to your website.  This is a strong and relevant external link.  You are on a site for car shopping, what could be more relevant.

Below are some things to think about before doing external links:

1.       Is the site you are linking with a good one that people trust

2.       Is the content on the website you are linking with relevant to yours

3.       The more popular the page you are linking on and the more popular the site the better

Many dealership, particularly large dealer groups, have contracts with vendors.  I would recommend expanding the scope of that contract.  For example, if you have a contract with a radio station or a local online entity that you advertise on include content and social aspects to what you negotiate.  

If we spend at X level we would like 1 blog per quarter to be written about either our industry or our dealership with some reference to us and our website.  You can even see if you can provide the content.  This isn't meant to be a hard sell ad but just a way to establish your dealership with LOCAL relevance and trust.

Another interesting idea would be to get the entity to mention your dealership on their social media pages.  

Remember to include that all content must be approved by you to ensure your dealership is shown in an accurate way.

For years I have hired for BDC's and it get harder and harder.  Even in markets where unemployment is high it seems like the automotive industry just can't attract talent.  Yes there are some diamonds in the rough but I would say out of 20 BDC reps about 7 are reliable and good.  So what's a dealer to do?

I don't really have the answer but I have some suggestions.

When talking to BDC employees their main complaints are the following:

• Typically they get paid less.

Most dealerships invest their money in the sales staff.  Well the BDC rep may be your most important sales rep.  The sales person gets paid more than the rep but many times while BDC reps are on the phone, confirming appointments, answering leads the sales rep is watching youtube or shooting the breeze.  BDC reps see this and it isn't good.  

Plus I often wonder, why would the sales rep get paid more.  Are they really grossing on the car?  Aren't grosses going down?  Of course I hope they are, but the reality is that it is tougher to gross now a days.  Most dealers are making their money in the box and the service drive.  So the more units sold the more money you make in the box and the back.  You may want to ask yourself...should I spend more on the appointment setter or the greeter.  All depends on how your dealership is set up of course.

• The hours are horrible

Given the pay many BDC reps can find a job to pay them the same amount with better hours.  So either change the pay or get creative.  Try job sharing!  Hire two part time people and have them share their leads.  They can share the hours and then maybe they won't have to work every night and every weekend.

• The benefits

Many small businesses struggle to offer strong benefits.  Healthcare is so expensive for most dealerships so make up for it in other ways.  Be creative!  Offer better vacation than other businesses in your area.  Host a weekly lunch.  Give bonus days for working on holidays. Pay them for reffering other potential hires. So many things you can do.

• They feel mistreated and not part of the process

Make the BDC employees part of your culture and the dealership.  When you have your monthly sales meetings invite them.  If you have a company announcement be sure to include them.  Inclusion is a big deal to BDC employees.

Dealerships have struggled for a long time trying to hire quality sales reps and BDC employees.  The industry needs to find ways to be more competitive so that they can hire quality people.

Why do you think quality hires have left the automotive industry and how would you suggest we change it?

I have been working on dealer websites for 15 years and I have been doing dealership marketing and setting up BDCs for 20 years.  It always amazes me how reluctant dealership ownership and/or management is to understand the numbers.  With all the data we have today, now more than ever we don't have to rely on just our gut to make marketing decisions.  My rule of thumb is 80% data and 20% gut because your experience is still very valuable.  I challenge managers and ownership to use the two, your data and your gut to make decisions.

For years I have had vendors pitch me SEO and they show me its working by looking at my Google analytics organic visits, but that really isn't the whole story.  Organic visits sometime are influenced by increase in market activity, manufacturer advertising and your own advertising.  I am not trying to take away from any efforts, but only try to point out the entire picture. 

I am always amazed that website traffic isn't looked at from a third party standpoint.  Someone that has no skin in the game and just gives you the facts.  What is more amazing is that there are vendors or services out there to look at this and they aren't utilized.  Some dealers are paying anywhere from $2000 to $7000 per month on their SEO efforts.  Wouldn't you like to know if you are getting results and if you have to spend that much.  That's right you may not have to spend that much.

Some of the most popular resources to check you SEO listings are Moz, Brightedge and Beingseen360.com.  There are a lot of free ones too but they don't give you all the information you really need.  All offer a monthly service that will check your keyword listings so that you can accurately create a strategy.  These services can vary in price so make sure you find the one right for you.  I always recommend testing your SEO every quarter and at a minimum every 6 months.

Obviously, beingseen360.com is my favorite.  Although I don't work for them, I have used their reports for years.  It allowed me to hold my current vendors accountable and over time lower my SEO expense.  You always need SEO but if you are killing the competition and reach a plateau you may find an opportunity to pull back a bit.  The best is I would use this report and give it to my vendors so they understood how they were being held accountable.  It made us more efficient and produced better results. 

My favorite stat is when I started doing this we were able to increase web visits from 2500 to 10,000 visits per month in two years with no other spend than SEO.  Oh and became the #1 dealer is our area.

Adding relevant content just isn't enough.  As I have written many times SEO is so much more.  Interlinking is another part of the SEO equation. Interlinking, internal links or hyperlinks are used to connect one page or post from your website to another.  By linking your new content with established content  you are creating a better hierarchy of pages for search engines and end users.

Hopefully your SEO company is providing your website with strategic and relevant content.  A next good step would be interlinking.  This is how your web "house" gets built.  Imagine a bunch of 2x4's as you build a house and how they all connect.  Your new page you just posted must connect too.  The page must be relevant to other pages on the site and your SEO company should establish those relationships through intersite linking.  The linking shows Google and other search engine when they walk into your front door, in other words your home page, where to go next. 

Although the home page carries the most weight we recommend when you post your new content take this opportunity to build other pages weight and relevance.  It all works together so if the pages you add hold up the home page you want them as strong as possible.  Plus if you have your social media, 3rd parties and all your other links set up correctly your home page is probably getting enough linking to the home page.  Avoid linking to pages within your current navigation like your inventory listings, contact us page, service for these same reasons. 

Build your content with strategy and your linking strategy should and will follow.  The big take away here is to have  purpose and relevance to your linking.  Those search engine spiders are pretty smart and every year they get smarter.  There needs to be a strong relationship between pages to make a link from one page worth enough to link to another.

Don't over link and don't under link.  Wow, there is a lot of room in between that.  Remember that when you are building a page your probably have links established without even doing anything.  Links in the header and the footer.   The number of links added to a page really depends on how many words your SEO company is writing.  Review the recommendations your SEO company has. 

By creating a path for Google spiders it makes their job easier and since spiders don't like to work hard they will reward you with better SEO rankings.

To review:

• Write relevant content
• Link new pages to established pages that are relevant or have a relationship to each other
• Establish how many times to link within a page
• Make sure the company is doing it

Private message me if you want my team to check out your interlinking on your SEO pages.

How often do you mystery shop your own store?  How often do you mystery shop your competition? We all know that the manufacturer mystery shops us however do we shop ourselves?  

I personally hate when the manufacturer mystery shops me.  A mystery shop is more about assessing the individual that actually receives the lead not the process.  It is valuable but I hate that they make assumptions on our process from one employees one moment in time.  I mean we all have bad days.  We also all have those employees that just don't follow the process.  The shops aren't wrong but they also aren't right.  

Furthermore, I sometimes find the manufacturer assessments to be out of date.  What works statistically for many stores doesn't necessarily work for mine or my people.  I am a big believer in there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Given this I like to assess my BDC/Internet Salespeople using a hybrid approach.  I like to use it all as guides but not the bible.  I typically mystery shop my department three times in a month.  I submit inquiries from different sources so that I get a good idea on how they handle each source.  I also submit on both new and used cars.  I then created a scorecard on what I was looking for.  The basics were:

1. What was lead response time?

2. Did you answer the questions?

3. Did you upsell - provide other options?

4. Did you ask a question to create engagement?

5. Did you provide your information and the dealerships?

6. Did you proofread it?

7. Did you follow up based on our process/workflow?

I then also took the manufacturer assessments and included it to go with my own so that I could get a good view of what they wanted and what we felt would work.  

By doing multiple mystery shops I am not just being the judge and jury on one instance.  Instead I am getting a better view point on multiple reps and multiple leads.

I also do this same process with competition but I check the pricing vs. ours as well!

Does anyone have a formal process they use?

So you have your inventory and your marketing and your people so now what?  Some dealers have told me that they believe the BDC is the most important department in the business.  Although I may be biased I think that all good argue that there is some truth to that.  

I have seen dealerships where 40% to 60% of sales, depending on the dealership, generate from the BDC if you have them taking all your internet leads and phone ups.  And many statistic show that 90% of your traffic has been on line with your lot prior to the visit.  All departments start with the sale...strong sales help finance, service, and parts all be successful.  I have personally experienced that up to 60% are there because of the BDC.  So yeah I think it is pretty important.

Many owners and managers are not aware if their BDC is working or not.  Here are some stats that you should be looking at weekly at a maximum and monthly at a minimum.  I am including some goals I have used to measure our effectiveness however I recognize that these can vary based on, types of leads, quality of inventory and your own BDC process.  

1. How many leads broken out by Internet and Phone because yes the results are and should be different.  Also make sure you define a lead, many BDC managers will determine what they think is a lead.  What I would do is say everything is a lead and the only exceptions were if the lead was a service or parts inquiry or if an email and phone number were not valid.  No margin for judgement.

  Appointment Percentage from Internet Lead goal 30% to 40% 

  Appointment Percentage from Phone goal is 60% on first call and 70% with follow up- used higher than new

2. Of the appointments you set how many are showing.

  Show percentage from both Internet and Phone leads goal around 60%

3. Of the customers that show how many are selling.

  Sold percentage will vary by store, for example if you are a subprime store your close is obviously much lower, however in general we aimed for 40%.  I have seen store want to hit 50% but those are pretty unique markets.

4. How many tasks per your CRM does your rep average per hour?

  We aimed for 15-20 measurable tasks.  This may vary depending on what your CRM can actually measure.  Be leery of fake tasks.

5. Do you have a follow up process that reps can follow?  Workflows, scripts, suggested emails.  I was able to set up a schedule that populated automatically and then my CRM would tell me how many they completed.  I was able to hold staff accountable to their percentage of tasks/customers followed up on.

This isn't new speech in the industry but still important.  At the end of the day take stock in what is going on.  Set up measures to hold your staff accountable.  Get a baseline and then set goals. Make sure that you make your process of gathering the data feasible otherwise you will get overwhelmed and not do it consistently.

 Barking for more appointments most likely won't sustain success in the long run.  A strong process with accountability will help you hold market share, reduce employee overhead because less people will be more productive, better employee retention because they will make more money and better use of your marketing dollars.

As an extension to my blog from October 6th I wanted to dive deeper into Google Analytics and the acquisition part of the metrics.

In google analytics you can see where a session or visit actually comes from.  The acquisition overview not only provides insight into how visitors find your site but their behavior and conversion details as well.  There are several ways to measure the different sources and Google categorizes them as Organic, Paid Search, Direct, Referral, Social and Other for custom campaign tracking.  You can click on each channel to drill down to get a more detailed view.

Understanding acquisition of visit and its relationship to lead volume and sales can provide many insights into your business.  The process from attaining a customer to selling a car can be very complicated.  There are so many more steps these days.  Make sure the online price is competitive, merchandising, SEO, Paid Search, Direct Mail, Sales People pay plans, Lead Handlers, etc.  Acquisition and understanding it can be used to pinpoint why a month was good or why a month was bad.

Over many years of building websites and handling BDCs here are some insights I have learned about acquisition. 

1. SEO is the cheapest and best way to attain a visitor. 
   1. Visits that are attained organically have a higher percentage of turning into a lead and a higher percentage of turning into a sale.  We also did a snapshot and learned that we were able to gross slightly better as well, although I recognize that a majority of that is influenced by the floor. 
   2. Organic leads also were easier for BDCs to contact because their phone numbers were more likely to be legitimate.
   3. Leads and sales are obviously key but we also can gain other insights into analyzing our SEO.  For example, if our rankings are strong and our organic visits don’t increase that could be an indication that either the market is flat or down or that 1st 2nd 3rd teir marketing isn’t generating interest and therefore demand.
   4. You will probably also see that more organic visits typically means a healthier web site interms of conversion, TOS, bounce rate, etc.
2. Referral are visits that come from other places.  Basically you are paying to be on another website and hoping they do your job to send visits your way.  These visits are:
   1.  typically a much smaller part of the pie
   2. Convert to a lead at a much lower rate
   3. Are a less of a quality lead
   4. Higher in the buying funnel
   5. Much more expensive to attain
3. Paid Search are visits that are generated from Google ads.  These visits will typically:
   1. Increase your bounce rate
   2. Are less quality
   3. They are the hardest to convert to a lead

For Paid search it is all about targeting and balancing your budgets.  The more fine tuned your campaigns are the more effective and cost efficient your efforts will be.  Paid Search is a great way to boost the leads but a lot of leads do not mean more sales.  More of the right kind of leads mean more sales.  Click here to see more about Paid Search Strategies that we like to recommend to car dealers.

4. Direct visits refer to people that enter in your name into google or type your url straight into the address bar.  Like SEO these are typically very successful visits featuring a low bounce rate and a higher conversion to leads.  You can also use these visits to see when advertising effort are effective and when they are not.

5. The last is social.  Social advertising is deceptively cheap.  The clicks and exposure are great and the targeting opportunity is also wonderful, however tie it back to sales.  In some markets you will see great results but in some not so great. 

The better you are at setting up your analytics the more accountable you can be to your digital marketing efforts.  Marketing is a moving target.  Find the best and most efficient way for you to spend your money.