I got started with Internet leads in 2001. Back then, you were on an island and had to figure things out on your own. If you’re doing it well, you’d need more Internet managers or a Business Development Center (BDC). Fortunately, we got to that point at Checkered Flag around 2003. It started with hiring individual Internet managers for each store and eventually grew into wanting a centralized BDC for the dealer group. And what a pain it was!
It was all blocking and tackling. We wanted a ratio of 150 leads/calls per month per agent, but we ended up somewhere closer to 250 leads/calls per month per agent. Trying to get to every lead in a timely manner while following up with old ones and answering inbound sales calls was mind-numbing work. Burnout led to turnover in our nine-person sales BDC. Turnover wasn’t as bad in the seven-person service BDC.
- 9 sales BDC agents
- 7 rooftops
- mix of highline and volume franchises
- over 1,500 sales leads per month
- over 1,000 sales phone ups per month
How I would build my BDC today
Let’s start with the cost of humans:
In the 2000s, I was paying each BDC agent around $4,000 per month with the ability to earn up to an extra $2,500 in bonuses. On average, that was around $5,000 per month. 9 people x $5,000 = $45,000 for the department in labor. Add benefits and government costs to help grow this closer to $50,000 per month. Each person needed a computer, software licenses or seats, a phone, and our actual costs were a bit more.
My BDC team had three core members who consistently met appointment goals every month. If I could have only fed them engaged leads, they would have always exceeded our goals.
What are the costs of engagement software? And what is engagement software?
Today, AI exists. And there are technologies that can engage the lead before a person needs to get involved!
AI that plugs into a dealership CRM costs anywhere from $1,000 to $6,000 per month per rooftop. Engagement software is much less expensive, ranging from $400 to $1,000 per month per rooftop. Engagement software works alongside your CRM to deliver a packet of trackable information. It could be service records for the car, a video, or car payments to play with. When a customer engages with the trackable information, the dealership is notified, and people can get to work.
AI performance varies widely from one vendor to the next, and how the dealer wants it implemented into the CRM. Engagement software is far less complicated.
I would reduce my sales BDC footprint from 9 people down to 4 and grow happier employees.
Shaving five people from payroll would save $25,000, which I could use to purchase software that works best at each of my stores. At luxury stores, I prefer to use engagement software over AI. Our BMW, Audi, and Porsche customers want very detailed information, but AI is not yet capable of providing it consistently. Those customers would quickly catch on to the generic responses! AI could work well at our Hyundai store, and I’d have to test it at Toyota and Honda to see how those customers respond to the initial responses. A brand like VW might lean more on the highline side.
With $25,000 in hand, I’d be looking at adding engagement software for up to $1,000 per rooftop to my high-line stores and probably the volume stores too. I don’t need AI because I have four good people. I need to know if there is a customer on the other side of that email address. The bulk of my BDC’s time was wasted trying to get a customer to engage. If technology can do that for me, I have a much more efficient team that will be happier doing their job.
If I ever lost one of those good people, I would want an AI backup to help carry the load while I found a replacement. This would also be the case when people went on vacation. Because of that, I would not buy the most expensive AI tool. I only need something that can suck in the leads and send a few emails or texts to help my team focus on the responsive customers. And I don’t need AI at every store with a centralized BDC. I only need it at the stores with the most lead volume. The lower-volume stores, specifically luxury brands in this case, require a deeper touch anyway.
How would I spend my $25,000 of savings from removing five people in my BDC?
All seven stores would get engagement software. Call that $7,000 at $1K per rooftop. Then, I would add a less expensive AI solution at the stores with the highest volume, such as Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda. Let’s say that is $2K per rooftop, so an additional $6,000 to the budget. $7,000 in engagement software + $6,000 in AI = $13,000 of the $25,000 savings. The dealer group just put $12,000 back to the bottom line and has five fewer people to worry about.
What if your store doesn’t have a large BDC?
At the very least, I would look at lead engagement solutions. SALESiQ is a good one that we offer. And then I would consider an AI tool that isn’t completely connected to the CRM… assuming your goal is just to engage Internet leads. If you’re pursuing a broader goal and love your current CRM, then you may be ready for a more substantial AI expense. You could budget for about $3,000 per month per store to take a lot of the burden off your current Internet lead team. That $3,000 should buy you the best of the best engagement software and a decent AI that just works Internet leads. This would also be a nice backup when someone is sick or vacationing. Chasing the 150 leads per dedicated person ratio is very expensive. Technology has come a long way, and switches that metric to be more like 150 ENGAGED leads per dedicated person.
