The Importance of a well Developed BDC/Internet Department

I am starting this discussion actually out of frustration. I have been working in BDC/ Internet Departments for some time now and I have dealt with GM's and Owners that know how valuable the Internet is and those who don't. Recently our Internet Team was changed over from BDC Reps working Leads, to a Salesmen rotation. The Rotation if implemented correctly can work very profitable for a Dealership. No Salaried Employees, Commissioned based Sales People, with a Management Team to guide and ensure that every lead is handled correctly. The frustration I have just recently encountered is how not to do it!

We had about eight Salesmen that would come in on rotation a day and work the leads throughout the day. For a while it was fine. Then we started hitting the bump of a Sales Person having an UP and not being able to come into their shift. They would attempt or have their Sales Manager attempt to cover the shift with someone else.. but it would not always happen. In fact as a couple of months went by, it became increasingly difficult to get anyone to show up for the rotation. When we would contact their Manager, we would get.. " All my people are with someone. " Then we would have to go to the other Sales Managers that were on duty and ask for one of their people to cover the shift. You can see where this is going.

Last month was the worst. We literally generated the most amount of leads, through my diligent efforts, from our Website.. 619 Internet Leads. Out of that 619 maybe 115 were actually worked from the get go and worked properly. Leaving a tremendous amount on the table. No matter how successful I was at generating the leads into our Department, I had no one to work them. Not to mention ad in all the phone call leads that this does not include and the rest of the Internet Leads from Third Party Providers. Anyway, I was actually cut loose from Gaudin Ford, due to lack of Production in the whole store. It was slow they said to me and I was not being let go due to my performance... In a Month that we increased our Generation by 200+ almost achieving the goal we had set for me of being able to downsize our Third Party Lead Providers.

My point is.. having a BDC that creates all the leads in the world, if you are handicapped by the GM or Owners because they wish to be cost effective, is a huge waste. When we had BDC Reps we were doing 80-100 deals a month out of the Department of of 400 leads. Then they had the great idea of minimizing costs by deleting all of the Reps and putting in a rotation of Sales People. At first it worked ok and we were able to stabilize after 2 months and get back to 60 deals out of the Department. But when you don't have a GM or Owner that will ensure that the Sales Managers will take responsibility and enforce rules to put Sales People in our Department to cover shifts, it becomes a nightmare. My Department Manager and I were presenting this issue daily to our GM and Owners, we have plenty of leads, it's not slow for us, in fact it has become busier due to what we have been doing.. We just have no one to work the leads. We turned blue in the face over and over saying this and we got no help... This again lent to my release this week. So in summation, it is very important to have the backing and understanding of a GM or Owners on just how important a Department is. We should have produced 80-100 SOLDS this last month and we did 38 due to no Sales Men covering. I just want to scream. How do you get let go, when you are doing exactly what is asked of you?

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Replies to This ADM Discussion

Permalink Reply by Frank Davis on August 19, 2008 at 7:00pm: Ignorance is bliss they say but I say for who? I am sorry to hear that you have been let go!!! sounds like you at least did part of your job very well and that was to get the leads in. Not having someone to work them is such a shame. I cannot see how moving salesman in and out could possibly work. You need a dedicated sales staff for the amount of leads you were producing, sounds like a eight man team to me. I believe you should have sales people taking the lead from conception to delivery, people do not like to be flipped when they get to a dealership. "Things are slow" now that is to funny. working the old business it should get real slow, might possibly just get so slow to close the doors. I am sure you will find a dealer that finds value in you and your abilitys.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tim Sandefur on August 19, 2008 at 7:24pm: I agree with Frank. I am a huge advocate of a "Smart" BDC/Internet department. A BDC is still for lead development but those leads should be handed over to a great internet sales staff immediate and worked from start to finish and there should be no separation of departments, they should work in tandem like a well oiled machine with no flipping. The round robin of salesmen does not work and you saw the issues first hand.
David hit the nail on the head....The biggest issue is always a major one and that is complete dealership buy in to the program you were developing. Sounds like that was superficial and not complete. Unfortunately times are a little tough as everyone knows and dealerships are turning more and more to the BDC/Internet for increase business, but with this comes ROI, conversion ratios and closing ratios. Be it someone else's fault, I think you fell victim to a failed process that produced numbers that were not inline with what your GM and owner ultimately expected to see, with no accountability from anyone but you, so you naturally took the fall because of your position.

My advice...when you look for your next position and you'll find one, make sure you talk with everyone, get a clear process and buy-in from all.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David Lytle on August 20, 2008 at 9:32am: Absolutely. It's funny because I was not the BDC Manager.. I was the IT/ Marketing Coordinator. This was a position that they actually built for me. I built the Dealership Website, Micro-sites, handled all SEO and SEM, I talked to all Third Party Lead Providers, Marketing Companies, Software, that came into the Dealership.. and if it was something we deemed worth while ( Me and the BDC Manager ) then the GM would be presented with it.

So my job duties included this.. Bring in the Leads! Every month I was there we increased Dealer Web Leads and decreased what we were paying out for Third Party Leads. We went from producing 50 leads a month from a Web Design Company that knew nothing about SEO and SEM.. to my last month 619. Our numbers drastically improved until they changed the Department to Sales staff. When I arrived a Year ago they were doing 40-50 Deals out of the Department. We increased it a steady 75-100 month in and out until they changed us to Sales Person Rotation. Then we dropped back down to 40-50, until we developed processes that worked. Then we shot back up to 60-70. But last month when we had no staff to work leads we dropped down to 38.. Nice huh?

So truly it was a learning experience. I wanted to bang my head against the wall, when they said it was slow and they were letting me go. I said, we developed the most amount of leads out of the Department and because you wouldn't give us a staff to work it.. It was slow? We should have had Sold 80-100 deals with the amount of leads we had. Talk about frustration. Thanks for the replies.; ▶ Reply to This