Ah, the holidays in the car business. This is when car salespeople, sales managers, and BDC reps can all make great money – with one big stinking caveat.
It’s tough working during the holidays – especially for our families.
It’s the long hours, the late nights, the “hey can I come to pick up my car at 8 pm” customers.
It’s tough going.
With all that in mind, few things are more important than making your team feel appreciated. As a manager or coworker, you need to make sure that your team knows you appreciate them AND that their hard work is being noticed.
I think that leading with genuine thanks is step one, but at my dealership in the past, there was also something special about giving a gift as a token of appreciation.
Over on the Facebook group, Ethical Internet Managers, Sales Managers, and BDC, I posted a query as to what everyone’s favorite holiday or birthday gifts were for car salespeople, sales managers, and BDC reps, and I’ve put together the list below!
Hopefully, this helps. I’ve used all Amazon links that should ship quickly when possible. That said, I think that more important than the gift is going to be the way you thank your coworkers and employees. A handwritten note is pretty special.
Fancy Pens as Gifts for Car Salespeople
Although we are all slowly making the move into the digital age, that doesn’t stop the fact that we still have to write in pen… all the time. Here are some easy picks from Amazon for different budgets:
Since we want to give off the best impression to our customers, I hope we all are still maintaining a high level of polish with the way we dress. That said… I do think you can have fun with socks.
At the end of the day, gift cards are a classic staple of dealership holiday gifts for car salespeople… it’s just easy and simple to do in bulk. NOTE: I think you definitely should give gift cards… but I really recommended giving them with a nice hand written note! The more personalized the better. I remember my old boss wrote a funny anecdote from the year that I didn’t think he remembered… it made me feel good.
First and foremost, thank you, Andrei. Reading your book has made this role much simpler for me and with the tools and guidelines in the book, you took a guy from 8-10 units a month to a 20+ unit guy. I started in August and up to date in May I was able to pay off $7k in credit card debt, $5k in personal debt and I am now five grand away from paying off my car.
Working in the car business is like going to a university majoring in street-smarts. Within my first eight months, I have learned so many valuable things that I hope to keep for as long as I can. If you are ever seeking a work environment or career where every day is different, the car business is definitely for you.
In this article particularly, I will discuss with you what I have learned from being in the BDC department. As a BDC representative, you are the front line AND the last line of defense for the dealership. With my situation working in a small store, if traffic and sales are slow, the eyes go to BDC. If traffic and sales are great, the eyes go to BDC.
In layman’s terms, the BDC department is ultimately the internet response team that handles all incoming web leads and phone calls coming to the store. Your job is simply to sell the appointment.
Here are some skills that working in the BDC has polished for me.
Stress management
Negotiation
Writing
Speaking
Emotional Intelligence
Time management
Copywriting
Innovation
Critical Thinking
People Skills
Here are a few things that I have learned so far
You are in the people business.
You have to really like serving people to excel in the BDC office. You are the politician that people will trust to go invest their time in the store, you become a salesperson when there a ‘no’ comes up. You are customer service if the customer is unhappy with something, and you must be the encyclopedia for your product.
You do not have to be ‘good’ at sales.
We are living in the Internet age, you do not be a salesperson over the phone. The inventory and prices sell for themselves over the internet. As long as you can act as their guide over the phone you will do fine if you do so with transparency, honesty, and being timely. With Andrei’s email templates, it was easy to set my set myself because I am not sending generic store templates and I am not sending any 1-liners.
The fortune is in the follow-up.
Not everybody buys within 1-3 days. In fact, the car buying process can go as long as 60 days or even 6 months for some people. However, each time you touch base with your customer, you will increase the chance of them going your direction, but of course, do not spam them.
Sell dumb.
Your job is the appointment, not the car. It can become a sticky situation if you give a wrong answer on payments, financing, warranties, service. In the beginning, I would ask for down payments and desired monthly payments but I would quickly run into self-made obstacles because I am not in the finance department and I can’t provide the correct terms.
Conclusion.
In closing, being in BDC is a job that is challenging yet very rewarding once you can learn how to take care of people, know your product and set yourself apart from other stores by providing a different experience and feeling that the customer gets when they interact with you.
My best month so far has been 32 units but I am still pressing forward to become better and still striving to have a 40 car and a 50 car month in the business. Remember, you have the ability to print money just by saying that the car is here!
Car salespeople are continually walking a fine line when dealing with customers.
Some parts are wonderful, other parts are tough.
Negotiating price can be tough.
Here you are, working with customers. You try and build trust, offer value. You work hard to answer questions and guide customers.
Everything is going well, until, you guessed it, they ask the critical question.
“What’s your best price?”
This question is a minefield.
Here is the underlying problem: there is no such thing as the “best price.”
Why not?
You see, markets are alive. As goods and services get bought and sold, and prices shift.
Whereas some things have a relatively fixed value, such as a pound of Bananas in the United States (79 cents everywhere I go!), many things have values that are “floating-point.”
These products, such as boats, cars, and houses, are “worth” whatever someone is willing to pay for them at that time.
When a customer asks you, “what’s your best price?”
They are asking, “what is the lowest price that you will sell me this vehicle for?”
The truth is, the “lowest price you will sell a car” depends on a host of variables. The business math behind the lowest cost you will offer a customer depends on:
Timeliness (how soon are you buying?)
Potential for Service Business (are you local?)
Potential for Alternative Profits (are you financing? are you leasing? do you have a trade-in?)
Relation (are you a relative, a friend, a family member?)
On top of those variables, the price of a car depends on the market.
The price I will sell a car depends on the price everyone else is selling their cars because I want my store to be a “value leader.”
If I want my store to have a reputation for being a “value leader,” I might be very concerned with what my nearby dealerships are willing to do on price.
Say, for example, I get a brand new product. It’s a Hybrid Q5, brand new to the market. I get 30-40 units to sell in the next 90 days.
A customer comes in and says, “what’s your best price for this car?”
Well, this Q5 hybrid is a brand new model! This car is a hot product with plenty of customers calling in to set appointments to see it.
You respond to the customer, graciously explaining that this a brand new model and our best price is MSRP.
If the customer responds with “well, I have a quote for your neighboring dealer for $3k off, here is the printout,” then you need to change your strategy.
If you want to compete, your best price is changing. It changed before your eyes!
The Biggest Pitfall
Here is a classic mistake salespeople make:
They’ve spent 2 hours with a customer on a cold Saturday afternoon. The salesperson has test-driven, shown the colors, and settled the customer on a specific car.
The customer, sitting at the desk, explains that although they are not buying today, they want to know your best price.
Thus, the gamble emerges!
If you present a price and call it your “best price,” they may accept it. They aren’t buying today, but if they take that the price presented is the best, you can hopefully move forward efficiently the next time they come in.
Here is the problem.
The customer has likely already put in an internet lead. That means that, regardless of if they want to shop you or not, they are almost guaranteed to end up talking to other salespeople.
These other salespeople are hungry for the business.
Here is the thing- you spent two hours with the customer. You have done the legwork. If the salesperson that is calling this customer can just offer a better price, that is a small price to pay to get a customer that is ready to make a deal!
This is how that conversation goes between your customer (Matt) and your competition (Sally):
*RING* *RING*
Matt: Uh, hello?
Sally: Hi! Is this Matt?
Matt: Yes, who is this?
Sally: This is Sally from Audi PT! I saw that you were looking at Truecar.com at the Audi Q5?
Matt: Oh, hi, yes, thanks for calling. I’ve already started to work with a sales guy, Jim, from Audi Oceanside. Thanks for calling, though!
Sally: Before you hang up! Did he provide you a quote?
Matt: Yes…
Sally: What did he say?
Matt: Uh, he said that the best he could do was 8% off. (No matter how much Matt liked you, money talks, and now he is curious!)
Sally: 8%?! Did he say that was the best he could do?
Matt: Uh, yeah, he said that was the best price.
Sally: I have good news. That’s not the best price. If you come today, I can do 8% off plus an extra $700! On top of that, my dealership has a unique offer, and we give every customer a discount on their first three services.
Matt: An extra $700? Well, I’m already working with Matt…
Sally: How about I make that a clean $900, and we call it a deal?
PAUSE HERE
Here lies the problem:
If Matt liked you, then he wants to buy from you. After all, he trusts you!
Now, the problem is, if you said that 8% is the best price, and he trusts you, there are only two realities in his mind:
8% is the best you can offer. There is no point calling you to ask if you can match the $750, that would be rude (since you are an honest salesperson that told the truth).
8% was not the actual best that you could do, so you lied. No matter what happens after, you have lost trust. In Matt’s mind, he had to go to someone else to find out a better price.
Neither of those realities sounds good. In the first option, Matt buys elsewhere. In the second option, he calls you to ask if you can match, but it’s clear that you have lost trust. Also, he is going to feel awkward calling you.
The customer doesn’t realize that car prices are a floating-point. The definition of the best price is always shifting with the market.
You can’t quote an exact whole-market “best price” because it can change at any moment.
The Other Trap
Now, this goes one level deeper.
If you have a customer that is leaving, and you avoid answering the “best price” question, you run the risk of seeming like you are “playing games.”
Almost every customer values transparency, but customers also expect to have to negotiate.
So how do you come across in a way that:
You aren’t playing games
You are willing to negotiate
While also allowing you to skirt the “best price” question?
My Solution: Be a Human
When in doubt, honesty is the best policy.
If you have followed my other training, then you know that I believe that the ability for you to convey your personality and value to customers is critical to selling.
Never forget the golden rule of car sales:
People buy from people they like.
So, if you have followed this advice, you just need to leverage this social capital (i.e., ask for a favor) politely and straightforwardly.
The following is the basics of what I say in the situation that I’ve outlined above (a customer leaving the dealership after receiving my quote):
“I hope that you’ve had a good experience here today (pause for agreement). I want to convey that I am wholeheartedly dedicated to selling you a car, and I want you to know that I will do whatever I can to earn your business.
While I’m confident that the quote I’ve provided you is both fair and competitive, I understand the realities of buying a car in the 21st century.
If you do receive a lower quote from another dealer, please reach out to me before making a decision. Again- I don’t think that another dealer will quote you less. But if for some reason it is, please think of contacting me before making the purchase.
Would that work for you?”
In the end, this seems to work. If you have made the customer like you, then you can ask them this favor. Very few customers will react poorly to this messaging.
This way of talking to a customer, being upfront, honest, and genuine, works for me.
Review: How to Overcome “Best Price”
There is always a fear when using the above messaging that you will inspire customers to “shop around.”
The reality is that almost every customer is going to receive competitor offers, regardless of whether they requested them or not. It’s just how lead generation websites work (Truecar, KBB, Costco). They want to sell the customer’s information to as many buyers as possible.
Your customers are going to receive quotes- there is nothing you can do about it.
That said, if you use my messaging, you will bridge the gap. If you can perfect it, you will significantly increase your internet lead closing percentage.
Update, 6/18/20: There has been talking lately online about having pay plans tier off of percent closing. I think that this is a great way to avoid the problem of having BDC representative set appointments that have a low closing rate. The idea would be that in order to get the full commission per appointment the overall closing rate needs to hit a set figure.
For example, if a BDC representative’s appointment closing rate dipped below 20%, their per appointment commission would drop by 20%. If it dipped below 10%, then it would drop by an additional 20%.
Note that this type of structure does require active managing. If your entire store’s appointment closing rate is 15%, then the example above would only punish good representatives!
You can not afford to build an Automotive BDC that is unsustainable. The cost of hiring, training, and onboarding new representatives is incredibly high and needs to be avoided at all cost. You want your representatives to stay at your dealership for as long as possible. It is better for the culture and the bottom line.
It is critical for the success of your dealership that you implement a sustainable BDC pay plan.
If your BDC pay plan is unsustainable, you will have to shut it down during the slow parts of the automotive sales cycle.
Your BDC pay plan needs to scale with the volume of sales that your dealership generates, and it needs to be able to pivot during a downturn.
Today I am going to review three ways that you can make your BDC more sustainable. This article is a follow up to my thoughts on the recent article “4 Ways to Stand Out in a Cooling Market.”
Rely Heavily on Commission for the BDC Pay Plan
Having your dealership’s BDC pay plan rely heavily on commission allows your dealership to avoid manual pay cuts during downturns.
Here is an example pay plan from my dealership:
This pay plan is heavily weighted towards earning a commission since the vast majority of the compensation is locked in the BDC representative scheduling appointments that show and buy.
Even this pay plan would have benefited, in retrospect, with a slightly lower base hourly rate and marginally higher commissions. The less weighted towards hourly rate your BDC representatives are, the less financial burden they cause during the downturns.
Cycle the Lists
I recommend in the Automotive BDC Manifesto having your BDC representatives call the store’s fresh up customers (Chapter 3: Working the Floor Traffic). This way your dealership is less likely to lose deals when floor salespeople take their days off or forget to call their weekend drop-ins.
That said, there is an under-discussed danger involved with this plan: your salespeople can grow complacent, and begin to rely too much on the BDC.
If this happens, the net output of your dealership will decrease or stay the same, regardless of the efficiency of the BDC. In the worst case, the harder the BDC works, the less your floor salespeople will work, as they will recognize the “free labor” that the BDC offers.
How can you avoid this?
One way is to cycle the salespeople that your BDC representatives follow-up for. This will allow your sales managers to monitor the follow-up of your floor salespeople since the truth will be revealed when the BDC is not following up for them.
In a way, this is a way that you can keep your BDC pay plan sustainable since your BDC won’t make your salespeople lazy.
Search for New Opportunities
The BDC has a base pay, which differentiates them from most salespeople. Because of this base pay, they can be asked to follow-up with experimental customer groups that your sales team might not have had success with in the past.
An example experimental group may be service not sold customers. Many CRMs will be able to cross-reference your service appointment log with your sales CRM to provide you a list of customers that service at your dealership but did not initially buy from your store.
These are great potential future customers, but since this lead source will have a lower closing ratio, it can be challenging to motivate floor salespeople to pursue it. Since your BDC has a base pay, instructing them to follow up with these customers is a smaller pill to swallow.
Every market is different. The opportunity to explore new customer lists is a great part of having a BDC.
Bill the Deals
Your BDC’s work setting appointments should be thought of as an acquisition cost of selling cars. Most dealers have a “pack” that they bill every car deal that is meant to pay for the fixed costs of selling the vehicle (such as detail, marketing, and admin work).
To properly account for the cost of your BDC, it may be wise to bill your deals the average commission of your BDC representative (refer to your BDC pay plan for an idea of the average commissions).
The one thing you want to avoid is a confusion of incentives. Your goal is to sell cars, and for your team to successfully work together to accomplish that, you all need to appreciate each other. If you bill the deal too much, you can run the risk of salespeople resenting the BDC affecting their commissions.
That said, it is a worthwhile accounting strategy to consider. Protecting your BDC and keeping it financially sustainable is critical.
Your Thoughts?
What are some ways that you can make sure that your BDC doesn’t get cut during the next economic downturn? How can you build a sustainable BDC pay plan?
Part of being a successful car salesman (or saleswoman) is keeping your eye on your earnings. Your income is the most straightforward single metric to use (as a salesperson) to measure your worth to your company.
I’ve written this article to guide you the simple steps I followed to make my first million selling cars (in six years).
The Right Column is my Gross Income (I started selling cars mid 2012)
Now, make sure you don’t misunderstand my perspective. I don’t think that your earnings are the end-all of who you are as a human being. Instead, I propose that your income most easily quantifies your worth to your company.
Just like a high demand car commands a high value, a high-quality salesperson should demand a high income.
Sales is a brilliant career because your income (assuming it is commission) correlates directly to the profit your business produces.
Consider the alternative. If you had a career in human resources, how do you quantify your value? Your effect on the companies bottom line will have to be extrapolated from abstract numbers such as employee turn over and payroll accuracy.
In sales, if the store makes money, you should too.
I believe in the car sales career because it has worked for my friends and me.
Becoming a Successful Car Salesman
The beauty of the car sales career is that you can learn on the job. Every skill that you need to be successful is taught by the repetition of situations that come up at the dealership.
The car sales career is unique because of it’s short sales cycle. As a salesperson, you can have five attempts to make a sale on one Saturday afternoon.
Compare that to the other sales jobs with similar incomes. In technology sales, your product is often a subscription that needs to be approved by a VP or C-level executive. You pitch your product to whoever you can, and you slowly work your way up the food chain at the company. A sale can take 6-12 months!
What if you made a mistake early in the process (product knowledge misunderstanding, overpromising, annoying the wrong person). You might not realize that the whole deal was going to fall apart for months.
With that type of job, your personal growth can take time. Your opportunities to iterate your process and improve only appear when you make mistakes.
Creating Opportunity
So we come to the beauty of the car sales career.
This is a career where, if you are paying attention, you can make mistakes and improve every day. Your sales cycle is measured in hours, not weeks or months.
So how do you create the opportunity for yourself?
You take more chances.
That means you need to talk to more “ups.”
You should be fighting for every opportunity that comes your way. Not because every customer is worth talking to, but because every customer is an opportunity for you to learn something.
The Math of Success (Customers/Day)
Let’s say you want to make a million dollars, like I did, in your first six years.
What does that take?
There is some simple “work-backward” math that we can do together.
For my example, we will assume that you make $500 per car sale if you average out all of your bonus and commissions.
Then, we will assume you close 20% of the customers that you talk to.
Let’s work backward.
One million dollars, divided by six years, is $166,660 per year.
$166,666 per year is $13,888 per month.
$13,888 per month, divided by $500 per car, is 27 cars sold per month.
So you need to sell 27 cars per month, for six years, to make a million dollars (before tax).
We said earlier that you close 20% of the customers that you talk to, which is one in five.
If you sell one in five customers, to sell you 27 cars, you will need to talk to 135 people per month.
If you work 23 days a month, you will need to talk to 5.86 people per working day to make a million dollars in six years.
Taking that one step further… assuming you take one hour a day of “breaks” and work nine-hour days, you will need to talk to a new customer every 1.4 hours.
That sounds very doable to me!
Where to Find Customers
To talk to a new customer every 1.4 hours, you need to be well versed in the different “avenues” that you can find new customers.
The most obvious customer is the walk-in customer who shows up unannounced at the dealership. It should be a given that if you want to make a million dollars in six years that you will need to be the master of getting these opportunities.
In your first few years, while you are handling floor traffic, you need to be on the constant lookout for these customers to arrive. Before doing anything else, master this funnel!
The highest closing rate customers you will find are going to be inbound phone calls. Can you figure out why?
Think about the psychology of someone calling into a dealership in the 21st century. They have access to every online resource, but they decided to call instead.
Calling a dealership is a clear buying sign. They are looking to get answers fast and from the source. They don’t want to wait. To make your million, you are going to need to be fast to pick up inbound phone calls.
So let’s say you have mastered the walk-in traffic and the inbound phone calls. What could hold you back?
Think about the math we did earlier. Consistency is going to be a key to making an outsized income.
If you want to be consistent, you can’t have many “bad days.”
Let’s address this mindset.
Difference Between “Good” and “Bad” Days
I’m going to take a little break to share an idea that a mentor shared with me recently:
Have you ever noticed how some days you wake up and you feel great? You are excited to face the challenges of the day, you are happy to be awake? You can’t wait to get started?
…And have you ever noticed how other days you wake up and things are different? You feel tired and you feel flat. You’re dreading going to work and you wish you could just hide away from it all?
Well I was having one of those “bad” days yesterday. I woke up feeling like cold deli meat. I was just not happy. On a whim, I opened a window and I looked outside.
You know what I found?
I found a nice sunny day.
The fact is that most days here are sunny. The birds wake up and chirp every single day.
All that negative junk? It had nothing to do with that day. It had everything to do with what was going on in my head.
Every day is the same. It’s how we react to it that is different.
Having this type of mindset is a key part of being a successful car salesman.
Successful Car Salesman Mindset: Every Customer has Value
That story brings me to my point. Successful car salespeople don’t see some customers as good and others as bad. They see every single customer like a piece of the puzzle that is going to build their career slowly.
Some customers are going to be lay-downs. They will pay MSRP and leave happily. Others will grind you for hours, test-drive four cars, and then leave in a bad mood, without a new car.
None of that matters in the end.
What matters is that you keep a level head, and absorb as much opportunity as possible.
You aren’t going to be able to find those perfect golden customers if you don’t talk to the annoying customers.
Not only that, those annoying customers give you a fantastic opportunity to practice.
“Eat Out of My Hand”
Those annoying customers can be thought of as a waste of time, or they can be considered as a challenge course for your successful car salesman personality.
Here is where “eat out of my hand” comes in.
It’s the summation of a mindset I use when I work with the most challenging of customers.
When a challenging customer appears, you will know quickly. Challenging customers make their attitudes clear early on, with the way they talk and the things they say. Even their body language can give them away.
When I am faced with one of these customers, I clear my mind and concentrate on the challenge ahead.
In my head, I repeat this:
This customer wants to hate you Andrei.
They want to have a bad day.
Things are not going their way today and they want to put that on you.
Andrei, you are going to face this down as a challenge.
Your mission is to make this asshole love you.
Make this guy love you so much that he would eat out of your hand.
There is a magic to this mindset. I create a game to play, with the end goal of converting the challenging customer into a rabid fan.
When I repeat that mission back to myself, I get excited — what better test of my skills than this challenging customer.
The Return of Humanity
While becoming a successful car salesman it is possible to maintain your humanity.
I am often successful with the most difficult of customers, simply because the challenge makes me invested in the sale.
The best part of this mindset, of challenging yourself to convert the challenging customer, is that you often find that the customer isn’t a bad person.
I’ve found that the most challenging customers are not bad people, but rather, they are scared.
Their fear centers around the fact that they have heard of the evils of trickster salespeople. They fear being taken advantage of.
When you turn their experience around, when you win them over, they lose their fear.
Not only do they lose their fear, they often will grow attached.
I’ve had some of my most demanding customers become “referral machines.”
Referrals are the End Game
Every customer you talk to, buyer or not, is an opportunity to generate referral business.
When you make a great impression, you can create fans.
Fans will believe in the value you bring, and they will spread your name far and wide.
The most successful salespeople work primarily off referral business.
It’s just a better lifestyle.
Referral customers come to you from a place of trust, and they are infinitely more comfortable to work with.
If you want to grow as a successful BDC representative, you need to be asking yourself the right questions. Even the top representatives have room to improve, and this article’s questions should unlock your potential!
If you’ve already read The Automotive BDC Manifesto, you are well on your way to being a top representative at your store. Choosing to follow a path of self-improvement is critical in every career path. Never forget the fundamental tenet of my book: BDC representatives are salespeople, not receptionists!
There is no guarantee that your managers or your coworkers will go out of your way to help you set more appointments. It’s time to take things into your own hands.
Self-questioning is an essential part of improving your performance at work. You need to be able to ask yourself the hard questions, and be honest in your answers!
Successful BDC Representative Question #1: Do I Know My Product?
Salespeople need to be excellent at building relationships, over-delivering on value, and knowing their product. If you are expecting to be a top representative, convincing your clients to come in for appointments, you need to make sure you understand what you are selling.
Every manufacturer provides training for the sales representatives that work with customers on the floor. The manufacturer creates video training and will keep it updated with the new product launches.
Do you follow that training? Do you have a log in so that you can learn the answers to the questions that your customers are going to have?
Think about it this way: you are the front line dealing with the customers. We know that customers actively shop around at multiple dealerships. Do you think that we are putting our best foot forward by not knowing the answers to their questions?
If you don’t want to spend a few minutes a day watching the training videos, consider just walking the showroom with a salesperson, asking for information. Tell the sales representatives on the showroom floor that you will be better at setting appointments for them that sell if you have all the product information!
“I think it’s just little tweaks you need to put into action if you want to be more polished. It
will take a decision to start and a dedication to follow through. Polish is not about some
grand action; it’s a collection of little steps—little steps that you care about.”
Take the small steps every day to perfect your product knowledge.
Not only will you be more successful with the customers, but you will also be setting creating personal value that will protect during market downturns.
Things you can do to learn about the product every day include:
Asking the managers about new products that have arrived
Sitting in all the showroom cars for a few minutes every week to try out new features
Asking for a demo car for a day (perhaps from loaner fleet?) to drive and get the feel of
These are the little steps that will push you to the next level.
With the knowledge from these small steps, you will be prepared; the customer asks you questions such as:
Does all the Audi Q5’s come with parking sensors?
When does the new Allroad come out?
Is there any difference in the new Audi Q7 compared to last year?
When you can answer these questions with confidence, you prove your dealership’s value to the customer. Every time you say, “Uh… let me check” you are losing rapport.
Successful BDC Representative Question #2: Do I Know My Salespeople?
When working the automotive BDC, you are a piece of a much larger machine. There is a funnel of customers that flows through your desk that ends up sitting with the salespeople. Both your customers and your salespeople have peculiarities.
The oddities of your customers will be made clear quickly as you work in the BDC. Although most of your customers will love getting updated on the status of their incoming cars, some will yell at you merely for calling. Some customers will only text, refusing to ever jump on the phone. There will be customers that never respond to a single follow-up touch, but then come in and buy on a random weekday afternoon with no warning.
Your customers are going to fall on a spectrum, from gentle to mean, from wealthy to not.
Guess what?
Your salespeople do too!
Learning about your Partners
Your salespeople that you assign appointments for when working in the automotive BDC are your partners. Never forget how much you all rely on each other! Think of the problems that arise when communication and relationships are lacking:
Salespeople can forget to log appointments, costing BDC reps money
BDC reps can forget salespeople’s days off, costing salespeople half deals
Salespeople can not update the notes in the CRM, causing more work for the BDC
BDC reps can forget to update salespeople on their customer’s plans, costing the salespeople some of their rapport
It’s a transparent back-and-forth.
So, put some Mariah Carey on and get to learn about each other! This is your responsibility if you want to be a successful BDC representative!
Here are some ways that you can get to know the sales staff better:
Attend the weekly sales meetings
Ask the salespeople what the BDC is doing well and what it could do better
Ask the salespeople if there are any problems that they’ve noticed that they haven’t addressed
Ask the sales manager to host team night for everyone to meet up outside of work
When the BDC and the sales floor work with each other, the result will be more successful appointments, better CRM usage, and more sales.
It’s worth it! Get to know your extended team!
Successful BDC Representative Question #3: What Percentage Do I Close?
Do you know the answer to this question:
What percentage of inbound leads do you set appointments for? What percentage of those appointments sell?
If you don’t know the answer to this question, then how will ever know if your performance improves?
Careful tracking of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) is the only way to track your relative performance at work.
Why do I say that?
Think about it this way. If you set 50 appointments every month for three months, and then you set 30 appointments in the fourth month, were you less effective in the fourth month? The fact is, unless we know the amount of opportunity you had in the fourth month compared to the previous months, we can’t identify your actual performance.
What if in the first three months you had 100 opportunities and in the fourth month you only had 60? In that case, your relative effectiveness went up in the fourth month, from 30% appointment setting to 50%!
Example KPI for Successful BDC Representatives
Here is a list of the fundamental Key Performance Indicators that I recommend you track as a BDC representative:
The ratio of Appointments Set (Appointments Set divided by Number of Leads)
The ratio of Appointments Shown (Appointments Shown Divided by Number of Appointments Set)
The ratio of Appointments Sold (Appointments Sold divided by Number of Appointments)
Sales Person Effectiveness Ratio (Appointments Sold divided by Appointments Shown)
With these four metrics, you can have a gauge of your relative effectiveness. If you wish to improve, track these four ratios!
In The Automotive BDC Manifesto, Anthony Rinaldi shared with us (in his bonus chapter) his ratios of success that he looks for:
Outbound: For every 80 outbound phone calls, expect 20 conversations, which leads to 10
appointments, of which 5 will show, and 2 will buy.
Inbound: For every 100 inbound phone calls, expect 50 appointments, 25 shows, and 12 sales.
If your numbers are vastly different from these ratios, shoot me an email, and we can delve into what is going on!
Successful BDC Representative Question #3: Do I Know My Market?
When you are selling cars on the internet, you need to know your market.
Your market is defined by the group of surrounding dealerships. In a thriving market, there will be plenty of
sellers and plenty of buyers. Dealers can differentiate themselves in three arenas: pricing,
customer service, and inventory.
Pricing includes the price you sell your cars for and the financing you offer. The pricing
you should provide (to be competitive) will be investigated in this chapter.
Customer service is a broader category, including timeliness, transparency, unique perks
(such as free servicing or details), pick up/drop off services, and general demeanor when
working with the customer.
Inventory, the final differentiator, is about volume. When a customer goes on your
website or visits your dealer, they want to have options on colors and features. The more cars
you have, the more options they have.
I know a significant number of BDC reps are asking themselves the same question right now:
“Wait… isn’t this the responsibility of my managers?”
If you think that market research “isn’t your job,” you are technically correct. That said, technically, most representatives never move up to manage an entire BDC. Most representatives act like Ziggy instead of Zag.
Your desire to succeed can be held back by your belief in the limitations of your role at the dealership. If you are willing to take on additional challenges, such as market research, you will stand out and make a name for yourself.
Superstar car salespeople and BDC representatives need to master auto sales skills to get ahead. One of the essential auto sales skills is the ability to do trial closes and then ask for the business confidently.
Imagine a world in which you were the only person with a unique superpower: You could read people’s thoughts, just by looking at them.
You would go to work every day and handle every auto sales negotiation correctly, always staying one step ahead of your customers.
When they bluff, you’d know. When they lie about how much discount they need to make a deal, you’d know. When they say they won’t pay a penny over invoice when they really would, you’d know.
What a successful salesperson you would be.
Guess what? You don’t have that superpower.
You are blind to what customers are thinking. You may pick up a subtle physical cue here or there, but overall, the customer’s mind is a black box.
Auto Sales Skills: How to Take Off the Blindfold
During your negotiations, you should be following a relatively simple template. Get the customer on a specific car, figure out how they want to buy the car (cash, lease, or finance), and then offer terms. These are the necessary auto sales skills.
When it comes to reviewing terms, you will often face a dilemma. How should you structure a deal?
How aggressive do you need to be in terms to make a deal?
Do you offer an aggressive number right off the bat? Or do you provide the standard price and see what they say?
You can’t know what is in a customer’s brain.
That is, you can’t know what is in a customer’s brain UNTIL YOU ASK!
How the BDC Can Ask Confidently (and Nicely)
Car sales skills come in all shapes and sizes. The ability to ask for money in a friendly, confident way is one of the vital differentiators between those who make an average income and those who make the top 5% of profits.
This applies to more than just money. In the BDC (Business Development Center), representatives need to ask for an appointment almost every time they are on the phone with a customer.
A top tier BDC representative will ask for the appointment at every opportunity (within reason). Every phone call by a BDC representative is an opportunity to provide a reason to come in. Perhaps the exact car they want is in stock, or there is a special sale running that includes the model they want.
Asking with confidence is vital. You need to believe in what you are offering in exchange. Does your tone of voice convey the reason for your call?
The benefit of the BDC is that your leads have often self-qualified. They will put in a lead describing what they are looking for.
Here is an example of confidently asking for an appointment, using the information provided by the customer:
“Thanks for jumping on the phone with me Tim. Last time we spoke you had mentioned that you were on the hunt for a 2020 Jeep Wrangler in the Steel Gray and Fire Red interior. I’ve just been notified that we recieved a car just like that today. I have some time available at 5:45pm today for you to come by, would that work for you?”
The BDC representative knows what the customer wants, so they can confidently ask for an appointment. There is value being offered by the representative.
The BDC is protected by the telephone. There is always an immediate opt-out available for the customer, as they can hang up. The BDC manager can monitor the word tracks of the representatives to make sure they are setting good appointments.
The salesperson that is face to face with a customer faces a different situation.
The Trial Close
When a salesperson is in front of a customer, they should be utilizing the trial close. Since it is so common to be working with a customer for the first time, you need a way to know if what you are showing the customer resonates with them.
Many salespeople ask for the business too early in the conversation because they forget to use trial closes.
The trial close is when the salesperson asks questions about how the customer feels about the sales process so far without directly asking for the business.
Trial Close:
“How do you feel about the lease special we have here on the windshield?”
Asking for the Business:
“If I was able to get you approved for this lease special, would you be ready to move forward today?”
The trial close is less direct than asking for the business. When you do constant trial closes throughout the process of showing a customer the car, you are getting a sense of the customer’s likelihood to buy without being overly pushy. You are “taking their temperature” instead of berating them.
If you have been taught to ask for the business consistently, I recommend you take a step back and think about the position you are putting the customer in. If you were at any store and the sales representatives kept asking if you were ready to buy, you would feel pressured. Don’t make that mistake with your customer.
Salespeople need to overcome the objections of their customers continually. The trial close will give you the information that you need to overcome objections in the first place!
When you do a trial close, the customer has an opportunity to “course correct.” They can tell you if the car you are showing them is outside their budget or in the wrong color, without feeling like they are being trapped into buying.
Auto Sales Skills: Did You Do Everything You Could Have?
So far, in this article, we have stressed the importance of confidently asking for business and consistent trial closes. How do you bring this all together when working with your customers?
In my experience, salespeople are much more likely to be afraid of asking for the business than asking too much. The salespeople that I know that are not performing up to their potential often are fearful of asking for the business because they don’t want to be rude. They know that selling cars is a great business, but they can’t figure out why they aren’t making more money.
To get a feel for where you fit into this, how often do you think:
“I want their phone number but it would be rude to ask for it this early in the process“
“I’d love to sell them a car but I don’t think they are ready. It would be better to avoid talking terms and just give them the best experience. I bet they will come back because of my customer service”
“Customers like me but they don’t buy from me! What’s going on?”
If you have been thinking about these three things, there is a high likelihood that you are:
If you can consistently do trial closes and politely (but confidently) ask for the business, you are doing what is required of a top tier salesperson.
To unlock the confidence to do these two things, you need to use this magical mindset:
If I provide top tier service, consistently take my customers “temperature” with trial closes, and confidently ask for the business, then I have done a good job (regardless of whether they end up buying)
The key is to realize that the outcome (purchasing or not purchasing a car) is not 100% within your control. It is your responsibility to ask from the customer, but not every customer will buy every time.
Auto Sales Skills: Look at Your Ratios
I would guess that most salespeople reading this article don’t know their exact closing percentage. The fact is, most salespeople still do not adequately use their CRM, so they can only guess what percentage of customers they close. What is the point of working on your auto sales skills if you don’t know how you are doing right now?
Here is the fact of the matter: if you don’t know your closing percentage, you don’t know if you are good at your job.
There are excellent 10-car salespeople, and there are terrible 30-car salespeople. The exact volume of cars they sell has nothing to do with it. The thing that proves a good salesperson is their ability to convert the opportunities they have.
If the theoretical 30-car salesperson had 500 customers and only sold 30 cars, they are lackluster. If the 10-car salesperson had 30 customers, they are doing very well.
Review: Auto Sales Skills
We can all work to improve our presence in front of the customer. Always put yourself in their shoes. How would you like to be treated when you are in the market?
This week, practice utilizing trial closes with your customers. Throughout your sales process, ask the customer how they feel about what you are presenting. Are they getting more excited? Are you showing things that resonate with them?
