By now, most automotive professionals are aware of the need to crack down on hiring practices in their dealerships-the mirror-fogging test just won’t cut it anymore. The question of course is how to do this. Below, the experts at ADP Digital Marketing shares four best practices for vetting potential employees.

Four Tough Hiring Practices to Employ in Your Dealership Today

1.     Sales Call Shakedown. Does your candidate have the phone skills for the job? There’s only one way to find out. Set up a phone interview and role-play a sample sales call. Posing as a customer, ask your potential hire simple questions such as:

• “Do you have the car I’m looking for?”
• “How is it equipped?”
• “What is my trade worth?
• “How much does the car I want cost?”

2.      Email Pop Quiz. Have your candidate email you a one-paragraph summary of why they are the right person for the position. Not only will this allow you to gauge their salesmanship abilities, it will also enable you to evaluate increasingly important skills such as grammar, readability, and Internet etiquette.” In today’s dealership, online literacy is a must,” Performance Improvement Consultant Rich Rikess says. “A potential hire needs to be able to communicate well across all channels.”

3.      Follow-up Fire Drill. After an interview, purposely delay getting back to the candidate. This may seem heartless, but it will separate the hustlers from the non-starters.  Following-up is a key part of car salesmanship, so this type of test is necessary to gauge a potential hire’s true prowess. Candidates that strike that perfect balance of politeness and persistence should move on the next step. “This test will also help you determine who is truly focused on working at your dealership versus who is applying all over town,” Rikess notes.

4.      The “Right Fit” Test. “A test!” you say. “This isn’t the SATs!” True, but there are many “soft skills” personality tests out there that help you further pre-qualify candidates in a way that a face-to-face interview may not. In fact, many dealer groups already use them, and single-point stores would do well to emulate this practice. “Many dealerships use Predictive Index (PI) or DiSC from Inscape Publishing.” Rikess Says. “In the end, dealers should conduct research and integrate the personality test that works best for them.”

If this sounds like a lot of work, it is. However, in the dramatically evolved digital age, these hiring processes are do-or-die. “Hiring any warm body off the street may have worked just fine years ago,” said Performance Improvement Consulting Manager Steve Hanson, “but the availability of online information has created a much more educated and informed consumers than ever before.” Therefore, Hanson said, “It takes aptitude and real skills to not only close a deal, but to also completely satisfy today’s demanding consumers and project the appropriate image of the dealership.”

Steve Hanson, Performance Improvement Consulting Manager

Steve Hanson, Performance Improvement Consulting Manager,  joined the Cobalt team in 2001 and brings over 20 years of retail dealership operations and consulting experience to Cobalt’s
clients. As a digital pioneer, Steve established his first Internet Department in 1995 as General Manager and minority partner of a
Mazda dealership. You may reach Steve at shanson@cobalt.com.

Richard Rikess, Certified Performance Improvement Consultant for ADP Digital Marketing

Richard Rikess, Performance Improvement
Consultant (PIC) for ADP Digital Marketing has been in the automotive industry since birth. His career has
spanned all facets of the auto industry. He has worked in management, sales, marketing and eCommerce.

The Cobalt Group

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You’ve invested in a great new dealer website; your job is done, right? Wrong. Although 61% of phone and email leads go on to purchase vehicles (Experian), many dealers still neglect to follow up with their email leads. Your automotive website is doing half the job by providing the lead, now you need trained staff to follow up and nurture them to close the sale. That’s where a Business Development Center (BDC) comes in. Although a BDC is now considered a must by many dealers, some are still resistant. Why? It often comes down to a culture clash.

Style Differences: Hunters versus Farmers

The traditional sales department is comprised of staff that can be regarded as “hunters.” These are the traditional auto sales types who are not effective following up with potential customers beyond a few days. Hunters are at their best when interacting with the “live” or walk-in customer; performance with telephone customers or email leads is usually inconsistent.

 The BDC employs people that are akin to “farmers,” willing to follow up with potential customers more diligently and for a much longer period of time. While farmers do not fit the “typical” car dealer profile, in the age of digital automotive marketing, it’s more important than ever to add staff whose specialty is converting long-tail prospects like email leads.

 The bottom line? You need both in your dealership to be successful. Here’s how to integrate farmers into the fold.

Setting up a BDC Department

Remember - there is not a “one size fits all” solution when a dealership chooses a BDC. The BDC’s operational strategy and structure will determine everything from the type of person hired to their responsibilities to how they and their department is measured once fully operational. However, here are some general guidelines that may be helpful in establishing your BDC department.

Scope

 A dealership must first determine the BDC’s purpose and scope.  Some tasks that can be diverted to the BDC include:

1.      Dealer website leads

2.      Phone Up clients

3.      Follow Up with Unsold Showroom Traffic

4.      Lease & Finance maturity prospects

5.      Service Customers

It is important to define the responsibilities that will shift to the BDC and those that will remain for traditional sales staff.

Staffing

•  When staffing, you will need to decide if you want your BDC center to handle pure appointment-setting, or start-to-finish appointments including setting up the appointment, meet-and-greet, test drive, etc. We will create recommendations for both below.
  
• 1 BDR for every 200 phone ups
• 1 BDR for 150 appointments set
• 1 BDR for 70-80 start-to-finish
•  1 BDR for lease and finance maturity customers
• 1 or 2 BDRs for service CSI follow-up (dependent on service volume)
• 1 Customer Relations Manager for unsold follow-up
• Orphan owners
  

Moving Forward: Nurturing Your Online Car Leads

Like most dealers, you are probably thinking, “Where am I going to find these people?”Crawl, walk, run! You can take it in phases. Most dealerships start out by moving control of the dealer website and reassigning incoming phone calls to the BDC. This allows you to move at your speed. You probably have one or two Internet sales consultants monitoring your automotive website and setting appointments, then you can easily find and train one or two people to handle incoming phone ups.

Now put a pencil to it, Mr. Dealer - divide how many Internet-based sales you are making today by the number of email leads you are getting from your dealer website. Those leads are money left on the table-a BDC center is the key element to convert those sales.