BDC: SIMPLE vs. EASY
by Mike Pezzella
During my baseball days, my Father was tough on me; for no other reason than he wanted me to succeed. After a game I struggled in, he said to me, “It’s just baseball, it’s an easy game.” To which I replied, “It’s a SIMPLE game, not EASY.” The BDC process is very much the same way, you email, call and text the customer; sounds SIMPLE enough, but it’s not EASY. Like baseball, it’s a generally simple concept, but how do you truly excel in the BDC? Here’s how…
How baseball relates to business.
Email: You cannot solely rely on your pre-filled emails to gain the interest of a customer. The vast majority I’ve seen in my experience are very plain, boring, and rarely have enough pop. This is your first response to the customer; it should be personalized to the best of your ability to gain the interest of the customer. If they leave a comment saying they’re interested in a lease quote and you just reply with “when can you come in?”, that’s a lot like me asking for a hotdog and being handed a bun! You deal with thousands of leads per year, it can be exhausting, but the best opening can lead you to a strong close to set the appointment.
Call: Okay, you’ve clicked “Send” on email #1, time to hit them with the phone call and let them hear the voice of the songbird that’s going to lead them to the promise-land AKA your showroom! The phones are key, a strong first phone call can land you the appointment in under 2 minutes if executed correctly. Remember: sell the appointment, not the vehicle! Your job is to get these customers in the door with as little info as possible regarding pricing (in a perfect world). This will allow the customer to come in asking for you, put a face to your name/voice, and have the customer in a more comfortable position to buy a vehicle on that first pencil!
Text: This can be your best friend, or your worst enemy! We live in a day in age where everyone loves to text all day long and not really get to anything juicy. Don’t get stuck texting a customer for too long, because it’ll jam you up big time. Here’s my secret, when I was a BDC Manager for Jeep, I tried to look at the details of a customer’s profile to determine whether this person is a texter or a phone call type of person (HINT: If you hear the classic “The voice mailbox is currently full”, they aren’t calling back because they likely have been hit by other dealers). Again, let texting help you, not hurt you. You want them on the phone, not in a text box on your CRM that only shows a notification half of the time! Be creative… I used to have my mouse hovered over my customers’ “click to call” number in the CRM, send a text, and immediately call a second later. People look at their phones instantly when they receive a text, and they might as well answer the “coincidental” inbound call at that same moment. Worked like a charm! Find ways to effectively use text messaging to your advantage and do your best to avoid having the brunt of your contact be via text.
To recap, email, call and text are all very important in the BDC. In my experience, phone calls get the job done more quickly. Use email to intrigue the customer, text for convenience, and use the phone call to set that appointment you know is sure to show in your desklog!
