One of the objections we hear at Dealmatic is, "I don't need automate my BDC process because I have enough staff coverage throughout the day to ensure manual follow up." While it's good to hear that dealers out there are getting "through" all their work, the fact of the matter is that's just not enough anymore.

Say you're a dealer that gets 10 leads per day and have a couple BDC/Sales reps -- you're clearly calling all of them on the first touch already. At a per touch contact rate of 20%-30%, you'll only be talking with 2-3 shoppers on any given day. And, to take matters one step further, if a conversation takes 10 minutes you've used 30 minutes of your teams time. In other words, you're leaving a ton of free time on the table! Having basic treatment plans in place isn't enough anymore. Conventional dealer treatment plan only last about 2 weeks. The dealers that are going to prevail and continue to get better year over year in today's car shopping environment are the ones who know how to run well-calculated long-term follow up processes. 

What do we mean when we say "Long Term Follow-Up process?" We mean after the treatment plan ends, then what? 14 days went by, you engaged 60% of your leads, 40% didn't converse with your team, you set appointments on 30% of your leads, and 70% of leads didn't. Do you have processes in place to ensure you continue to nurture leads & reach out to ones that show promise of sale, or do leads just fall into the deep abyss that is your CRM? One way will yield better results than the other. I'm sure you can guess which one. The dealers that have calculated long term follow up processes in place for the 70% of leads that didn't set appointments usually have some sort of prioritization in place. Without it, it is figuratively and literally it's like working through no-mans-land. So how do you distinguish leads worth working in the long term and which ones not to work? By the way, remember your team still has a ton of time through the day to do this sort of work. 

Key signalers for lead prioritization include geographic indicators like proximity to your dealership (are you owning your area?); demographic indicators like age, gender, occupation, and income; socioeconomic indicators like credit tier, income bracket, and household type; and lastly physcographic indicators like personality type, interests, & readiness to buy flags... These all help us hone in on a "propensity to transact" score. Something we at Dealmatic have built right into our product. Remember, after 365 days of getting 10 leads a day you'll have 3650 new leads in your CRM, now the question becomes clear: who should we follow up with? Who should we put our effort into? At a 70% miss rate, you're still looking at 2555 leads that you didn't capitalize on the first time around.

General industry statistics tell us that every year 17 million Americans get a New car and another 23 million buy Used cars, totaling around 40 million cars sold per year. Since there are around 230 million people in the US over 16 eligible to drive and buy a car, 17.4% of Americans are looking to get into a new automobile every year.

Which 17.4% of your 2555 leads are worth reaching out to? That's a core 445 leads that can result in additional sales. At a conservative 8% close rate, that's another 36 sales per year by leveling up your follow up process. And that's just with 10 leads per day. 36 sales becomes 72 or 144 per year at 20 or 40 leads per day respectively. When we talk about lead scoring it's not meant to be some goofy fad, but a helpful tool that lets dealers ensure that long term follow up and mining processes yield the most fruit. If i asked you does your post 14 day follow up process yield any fruit, what would you say?

We want to help empower dealers to be able to confidently say "yes it does, here's how much, here's how we do it, and here's where it comes from." Enabling your team to pick apart worthwhile long term follow up prospects vs. ones that'll ultimately waste your time is the nail your team needs to hit. If you set up a process now, you'll get better and more calculated in time and you'll find you squeeze more juice out of your leads, especially in the long term, than ever before.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading. We always enjoy making content for you. If you ever want to talk shop about your dealership's sales process, feel free to hit us up. We always love talking to dealers and meeting new ones. Have a great day!

2020 has been anything but normal, but if you stop and think about the opportunities it's provided to help us as dealerships grow and better understand shoppers, it's been invaluable. At Dealmatic, we've seen consumers increasingly choosing to select a self serve experience prior to meeting dealers in person. 2021 is unlikely to be much different. With COVID cases continuing to rise as we enter the winter months, it's likely we continue to see similar consumer behavior into next year. The good news is we've learned enough this past year to prepare you for a solid 2021. Quick question for you: how have you changed up your BDC operation to adapt to a post COVID world?

Dealership BDC's have arguably been more important this year than in years past. That's because of 1 simple reason: shoppers haven't been coming in like they usually do, foot traffic is down. And so, the job of reeling online shoppers in has become more important. In this post we'll explore how your BDC can adjust 3 processes to deliver better close rates and higher CSI scores.

(1) The first golden-nugget, and a key to having a killer 2021, is realizing that 1 in 5 of your leads that comes in wants to do the "first pencil" on their own. They don't want to be flooded with calls/texts/emails for the next 2-3 weeks. They just want a solid ballpark feel for what their monthly payment is going to be with all the general nuts and bolts considered (credit score, downpayment, trade in). These consumers will actually set the appointment on their own and also show a high percentage of the time. Using software like what we offer at Dealmatic can help automate your BDC and free up energy and time to refocus efforts on the leads that won't complete a "first pencil." 

(2) The second process to adjust is refocusing your team's efforts. When a lead converts on their own, take them off communications, and just ensure a follow up procedure is put in place to follow up before and after the appointment. By automating the experience on 20% of your leads, you save 20% of your time that can be repurposed for leads who need to be talked to over phone/text/email. Issue 1 more call to 20% more of your leads; the question then becomes which 20%? Lead scoring can help you figure out which cohort to best serve next. Simple slices like proximity to dealership and how compete the lead details are help infer consumer willingness and intent. Dealmatic automatically scores every lead based on a proprietary blend of willingness, desirability, and intent signals. By calling your highest scored leads first, you can ensure you're maximizing your BDC's efficiency and communicating with the most likely to close leads.

(3) Lastly, and in addition to BDC automation and lead scoring, you should also consider weeding out lead sources that aren't helping the cause. Every dealership has one or two sources that never convert. Do you know what these lead sources are for your dealership?  Sure, you might be justifying it by saying the leads only make up 20-30% of your overall mix. But fact of the matter is that sums up to 20-30% of your team's total time, and getting that back will be more valuable to the operation than just having more leads to call. Your CRM can usually help you with identifying the lead sources that aren't converting well. Sometimes you might have to create a custom report. This process is so important that we built it straight into the main dashboard of Dealmatic, that way you can keep tabs at all times.

In summary, adding automation, lead prioritization & scoring, and having the insight to know when NOT to work a lead can level your BDC up in 2021. You'll see increased close rates, higher CSI scores, and have a more energized & upbeat BDC team. Between these three efficiency boosters, your team will get the additional time needed to focus on the core 30%-60% of leads that were going to demand more focus and outreach from the beginning. 

Feel free to reach out to our team at Dealmatic to talk shop about your dealership. We're happy to make recommendations and provide feedback about your BDC setup free of charge. Cheers to a safe and fruitful rest of 2020 from our team to yours.