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Automotive Sales & Service BDC Essentials Course​ - RC

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  1. LESSON 1 BDC: AUTOMOTIVE SALES & SERVICE BDC - BDM COURSE INTRODUCTION

    Automotive Sales & Service BDC - BDM Course Introduction
  2. LESSON 2: ESSENTIAL BDC AND BDM STEPS TO TAKE PROPER CARE OF AUTOMOTIVE SALES LEADS
    Essential BDC and BDM Steps To Take Proper Care Of Automotive Sales Leads
    7 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  3. LESSON 3 BDC: EVERYTHING A BDC REPRESENTATIVE NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE REPAIR ORDERS
    Everything A BDC Representative Needs To Know About Automotive Service Repair Orders
    7 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  4. LESSON 4: FEATURES, BENEFITS, AND SELLING POINTS OF EACH SERVICE MAINTENANCE ITEM FOR BDC REPRESENTATIVES
    Features, Benefits, And Selling Points Of Each Service Maintenance Item For BDC Representatives
    8 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  5. LESSON 5: BREAKDING DOWN THE NEW CAR FACTORY WARRANTY FOR BDC REPRESENTATIVES
    Breaking Down The New Car Factory Warranty For BDC Representatives
    10 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  6. LESSON 6: UNDERSTANDING AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE CUSTOMER AND PERSONALIZING THE SALES EXPERIENCE BDC REPRESENTATIVES
    Understanding Automotive Service Customer And Personalizing The Sales Experience BDC Representatives
    2 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  7. LESSON 7: GROWING A BDC REPRESENTATIVES SOFT SKILLS AND SCHEDULING APPOINTMENTS
    Growing A BDC Representatives Soft Skills And Scheduling Appointments
    7 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  8. LESSON 8: HOW TO TACKLE CHALLENGES IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY AS AN AUTOMOTIVE BDC OR BDM
    How To Tackle Challenges In The Automotive Industry As An Automotive BDC Or BDM
    4 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  9. LESSON 9: MEASURING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT KPI'S & FORECASTING AS AN AUTOMOTIVE BDM
    Measuring Business Development KPI's & Forecasting Metrics As A Automotive BDM
    2 Topics
  10. LESSON 10: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SCRIPTS & TEMPLATES FOR AUTOMOTIVE BDC REPRESENTATIVES
    Business Development Scripts & Templates For Automotive BDC Representatives
    16 Topics
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Routine Sales BDC Tasks

Daily BDC Team Member & Manager Duties

  1. Checking for new internet sales leads
  2. Follow-up with old leads
  3. Confirm appointments
  4. Follow-up daily appointments
  5. Complete overdue tasks
  6. Close showroom visits
  7. Assign all inbound leads
  8. Update sold log DMS to CRM
  9. Monitor unanswered email replies
  10. Review previous day’s activity
  11. Monitor salesperson’s tasks and notifications

 

Daily Sales BDC Tasks

Addressing inbound leads quickly is crucial. All leads are considered time-sensitive, and your efficiency is vital to your success. So, respond to inbound leads, assign them to a CRM status and move through the CRM process. Make sure to complete your tasks before the end of each day. You’ll feel better about yourself and set an example for the rest of the team.

Completing tasks each day allows you to follow up fresh leads with a clear conscience without leaving you feeling bogged down when new issues creep up.

Perform the following tasks nightly to ensure customers in the CRM’s have not been overlooked or neglected.

 

Responding To Incoming Leads

Nurturing inbound sales is so essential the follow-up contact needs to be choreographed perfectly. When someone sends their email and personal contact information, whether it’s to sign-up for promotional offers or more information about a car on the lot, that’s a sign of trust. It’s the dealership’s job not to abuse that trust but to coach leads from a marginally curious to a customer who loves your company and shares their experience with others.

 

Assign All Inbound Leads

All inbound leads should be logged in the CRM, assigned a status, and given to a salesperson before the end of the day.

Phone call leads can be completed immediately after each phone call since you will be documenting what was discussed during the call. Logging and assigning calls enable the CRM to initiate automated reminders.

Stay on top of logging and assigning tasks since they can significantly reduce the daily manual labor workload.

 

Confirming Appointments

Automated text messages can be sent to customers but make sure it’s personalized for each customer. Send two reminders; the first one is immediately after scheduling the appointment. The second reminder is the day of the appointment. You will have to call the customer or send them an email reminder if the system in place at your dealer cannot perform this task.

Remember to update the appointment status after the customer meets with a salesperson.

Monitor your appointments daily, log missed appointments, and contact them immediately to reschedule them for another day.

Mark missed appointments as “Missed,” not canceled in the CRM. Canceling appointments can potentially stop processes based on the CRM’s settings.

 

Process After A Leads Salesperson Appointment

BDC staff follow-up with salespeople daily and reviews the outcome after the customer’s scheduled showroom appointment.

  1. If the customer did not show up for their appointment, contact them to reschedule another appointment
  2. Sold vehicle, the customer is moved to the “Sold Vehicle” follow-up timeline
  3. If a vehicle is not sold, the customer information is given to the sales manager to resolve the customer’s concerns

 

Close Showroom Walk-Ins Visits

Showroom traffic is commonly overlooked because a salesperson must generate them manually.

Closing showroom walk-in visits daily is essential to move the customer through the CRM process, whether they were sold or not, so review and close them daily.

CRM systems will give the process a different title, but are commonly called “Unsold Showroom, Sold Delivered, Sold Pending, or Sold On-Order.”

 

Update CRM Sold Log

Check the deals sold in the DMS each day and compare them with the CRM.

Some systems do not play well with one another and will need you to change a customer status to “Sold Delivered” manually.

Even if the DMS and CRM can communicate with each other, you should still check each deal sold in the DMS daily just in case there was a system glitch or human error. A common problem that used to occur regularly is if the finance or desk manager neglected to change the vehicle’s status as “Delivered” on their system, then pass the deal to the accounting department to update it in the DMS. The CRM will not receive the “Vehicle Delivered” trigger because the status was not changed to delivered in the DMS. It’s a human error that happens often, and even the best software systems do not catch this mistake.

If a sold customer status is not changed in the CRM, then all “Sold Delivered Follow-up” processes will be delayed for that customer.

Check the sold deal log in the DMS each day and verify the CRM is also marked as sold. Correct them as required and remind sales managers of the importance of this step and to please not skip it in the future. Again, CRM systems may give the process a different title, but are commonly called “Sold On-Order, Sold Delivered.”

 

Sold On-Order: Deal is only tagged as sold; it will not trigger any CRM processes.

 

Sold Delivered: Automatically triggers the “Sold Delivered Follow-up” process for the customer.

 

Monitor Unanswered Email Responses

Part of a BDC team member’s task is to monitor unanswered email responses daily. It can be discouraging to the unseasoned team member when a lead goes cold. The fact is, very few customers say yes on the first contact. Research shows that only 18% to 30% of customers will respond to the first email attempt. The number drops to 13% to 15% on the fourth attempt but then jumps to an impressive 14% to 27% on the sixth email.

The fact is, most customers need time to review the responses and reflect. So, don’t call it quits after the first attempt. The average email attempts six to eight per lead unless the lead asks you to stop.

There is no one correct answer to how long you should wait before sending out the next follow-up email. A good balance or starting point is to send follow-up emails every two days then modify the frequency accordingly.

 

Active Leads Not Responding

Leads are followed-up but have not responded within the last 48 hours. Don’t give up on these customers. It could take up to six to eight attempts before they reach out. Ensure the scheduled process in the CRM is active, future touch-points make sense, and are personalized for each customer.

Check with the assigned salesperson to see if they may have heard from the customer. Ask the sales manager if there are new and exciting offers coming up to tease the customer with. Finally, don’t give up.

If a lead becomes unresponsive after the initial contact, the general rule is to continue contacting the lead for five to seven days. For an average of six to seven calls, three emails, and a text opt-in before a manager takes over the lead.

Contacting a lead should stop immediately if the customer asks you to stop.

  • Within the first 24 hours of the first contact = 2 calls, 1 follow-up email, and 1 text message to opt-in
  • Day 2 contact = 2 calls, 1 follow-up email
  • Day 3 contact = 2 calls, 1 follow-up email with “Special Manager’s Rebate”
  • Day 5 contact = 1 follow-up email with a reminder the “Special Manager’s Rebate” will be expiring soon
  • Day 7 contact = 1 call, 1 follow-up email with a reminder the “Special Manager’s Rebate” will be expiring soon

 

No Future Follow-Ups Scheduled

Review the “No Follow-up” report daily. Leads that are not currently being followed-up should have their status changed in the CRM to initiate the follow-up process.

Check each customer’s profile, comments, and history first to determine the action needed before changing their status.

Customers with an upcoming showroom appointment or currently active in the showroom may also show up in this report. So, you will have to skip over changing their status until after the appointment with a salesperson has been completed.

 

 

Additional Notes: This guide is not a complete BDC task list. There’s no one-size-fits-all task list for BDM’s because each manufacturer, dealer, or independent store may have additional steps or perform these steps in a different order. This lesson is to get you started in the right direction, use the guide in the beginning, then build on it by creating your own task list.