ROCKIN’ Employees – Where the Hell are They?

We run a BDC department, and they are considered appointment setters.  This BDC set up has historically shown stronger gross profits.  Reason being is cradle to grave salesman will get complacent once the customer shows and they have already spent so much energy with the customer.  They will go ahead and deliver that $200 deal.  However, when you turn it to a fresh NEW face, that salesperson is motivated and hopefully can get the customer to switch trim levels and models.  No difference why we don't have salesman do Finance.   In addition, I think 25 emails and 25 calls a day is light.  We get well over 50 calls a day out of our Internet sales staff.

I have to add this.  If I had to go back to be a sales person for myself I would prefer cradle to grave.  Give me 120 leads per month and I will work them and sell them.  It was how I got into internet sales to begin with.  The phone skills were there and the process was there for me.  All I had to do was work hard and multi-task and I was successful.  But not everyone can do that.

I have worked with stores where Cradle to grave works well but there are opportunities still missing.  It took me a long time to adjust to a  BDC.  In fact, I did not get into until late 2007 when I started running one.  Now I am a BDC advocate all day long.  I learned how to make a BDC rock and I even experimented with processes.  The key here is to have a dealer invest in it and want to make it work.  Some dealers do not want to justify the expense while others are all over it.  I think that with an open mind that the decision to have a BDC should depend on various variables.  I look at what product is being sold and consider the volume that the product (not the store) generally moves.  I also look at location and setup of the store.  Let's face it.  It a dealer is only getting 100 leads per month and has no care in the world to try to grow to 300 leads per month they do not need a BDC.  Chances are they are landlocked and can only do so much.  I have clients that are like that.  Now a city store or a high traffic store that generates 1000s of leads per month needs a BDC.  It is all about setup and location.

Cradle to grave can work really well when the right people are doing it.  Unfortunately, there aren't many of the "right people" around.  I think that's most of your point Jennifer. We started with a BDC in 1998, but it failed around 2000 due to splitting commissions with sales agents.  We were cradle to grave from that time till 2004 and had great success with the BDC until October of 2008 when it was dismantled to save on costs during the recession.  The dismantling only lasted a few short months as it was almost immediately clear just how much was lost by not having a BDC.  I should mention this is a 12-franchise dealer group serving a population around 1,000,000. The problem with cradle to grave isn't just in having the "right people" it also has a lot to do with lead volume.  One GOOD cradle to grave sales person can probably handle about 75 leads a month.  I say 75 because they stack-up in later follow-up.  Not all Internet lead-submitters buy within 7 days of dropping the lead.  A full time BDC agent, on a good process with the right CRM, can handle around 200 leads a month.   Let's do the math.  75 leads for a cradle to grave agent at around a 12% closing ratio (generous national average) equals 9 sales a month.  200 leads for a good BDC agent at a 20% closing ratio (Kershner average) equals 40 sales a month.  Can anyone say "duuuuuh?"      

BTW Jennifer, I feel your pain and often have the same questions. We have tackled many of these questions over in the dealer forums. So many opinions around BDC vs Cradle to Grave

I have a dealer that incorporates a BDC for Internet leads and I have 2 dealers that are cradle to grave. Each dealer has it's own struggles and set of employees with different skill sets. Though I still believe when you have a BDC set up properly that truly works along side of the sales department and managers, you can have some ROCKIN' results. 20% plus percent closing ratio across the board with internet leads. Of course that's after also optimizing your marketing and lead mix.

just hired an appointment setter for our internet leads. we need to make a little headway on converting these internet prospects -- historical conversion rates for us have been pretty low for us

Disagree. BDC's are horrible and I've seen them fail over and over. I say eliminate the internet department. All sales are internet involved these days. BDC is old school and so are internet sales people. Look at JD powers studies about consumers and contact with dealers prior to purchase. It keeps going down and down year after year. I believe we are at 80% for 2012 of consumers having no contact prior to arriving at the dealership. You need great mandatory dealership processes, excellent merchandising and if anything chat to text. Maybe you need a text department rather than a BDC.

Take a look at Better Car People, home of Overnight BDC. We are a 24/7/365/ lead management service for your sales and service leads.

We run a BDC department, and they are considered appointment setters.  This BDC set up has historically shown stronger gross profits.  Reason being is cradle to grave salesman will get complacent once the customer shows and they have already spent so much energy with the customer.  They will go ahead and deliver that $200 deal.  However, when you turn it to a fresh NEW face, that salesperson is motivated and hopefully can get the customer to switch trim levels and models.  No difference why we don't have salesman do Finance.  

In addition, I think 25 emails and 25 calls a day is light.  We get well over 50 calls a day out of our Internet sales staff.

I have to add this.  If I had to go back to be a sales person for myself I would prefer cradle to grave.  Give me 120 leads per month and I will work them and sell them.  It was how I got into internet sales to begin with.  The phone skills were there and the process was there for me.  All I had to do was work hard and multi-task and I was successful.  But not everyone can do that.

I have worked with stores where Cradle to grave works well but there are opportunities still missing.  It took me a long time to adjust to a  BDC.  In fact, I did not get into until late 2007 when I started running one.  Now I am a BDC advocate all day long.  I learned how to make a BDC rock and I even experimented with processes.  The key here is to have a dealer invest in it and want to make it work.  Some dealers do not want to justify the expense while others are all over it.  I think that with an open mind that the decision to have a BDC should depend on various variables.  I look at what product is being sold and consider the volume that the product (not the store) generally moves.  I also look at location and setup of the store.  Let's face it.  It a dealer is only getting 100 leads per month and has no care in the world to try to grow to 300 leads per month they do not need a BDC.  Chances are they are landlocked and can only do so much.  I have clients that are like that.  Now a city store or a high traffic store that generates 1000s of leads per month needs a BDC.  It is all about setup and location.

Cradle to grave can work really well when the right people are doing it.  Unfortunately, there aren't many of the "right people" around.  I think that's most of your point Jennifer.

We started with a BDC in 1998, but it failed around 2000 due to splitting commissions with sales agents.  We were cradle to grave from that time till 2004 and had great success with the BDC until October of 2008 when it was dismantled to save on costs during the recession.  The dismantling only lasted a few short months as it was almost immediately clear just how much was lost by not having a BDC.  I should mention this is a 12-franchise dealer group serving a population around 1,000,000.

The problem with cradle to grave isn't just in having the "right people" it also has a lot to do with lead volume.  One GOOD cradle to grave sales person can probably handle about 75 leads a month.  I say 75 because they stack-up in later follow-up.  Not all Internet lead-submitters buy within 7 days of dropping the lead.  A full time BDC agent, on a good process with the right CRM, can handle around 200 leads a month.  

Let's do the math.  75 leads for a cradle to grave agent at around a 12% closing ratio (generous national average) equals 9 sales a month.  200 leads for a good BDC agent at a 20% closing ratio (Kershner average) equals 40 sales a month.  Can anyone say "duuuuuh?"      

BTW Jennifer, I feel your pain and often have the same questions. We have tackled many of these questions over in the dealer forums. So many opinions around BDC vs Cradle to Grave

I have a dealer that incorporates a BDC for Internet leads and I have 2 dealers that are cradle to grave. Each dealer has it's own struggles and set of employees with different skill sets. Though I still believe when you have a BDC set up properly that truly works along side of the sales department and managers, you can have some ROCKIN' results. 20% plus percent closing ratio across the board with internet leads. Of course that's after also optimizing your marketing and lead mix.

just hired an appointment setter for our internet leads. we need to make a little headway on converting these internet prospects -- historical conversion rates for us have been pretty low for us