The Five MUST HAVES for Creating a Successful Automotive BDC – PART 1

The 5 Must Haves for Creating a Successful Automotive BDC – PART 1

TRANSCRIPT: This is Steve Stauning with another ‘Steve Stauning Short and Sweet Video Training Session’. Today’s lesson: The five absolute ‘must haves’ if you want a successful BDC in your dealership. Now, if you’re like most dealers I’ve spoken with lately, you’re either looking to add a business development center, also known as a BDC, or you’re trying to find ways to make your current BDC more successful. If so, then there are a few must haves that are truly non-negotiable if you’d like your BDC to succeed today and over the long term.

Must Have number 1- BDC’s must be a profit center, not a cost center.

The primary reason BDC’s failed in the past is they just weren’t very successful driving what I call “plus business”. I saw it play out again and again and it probably played out in your store as well: a dealer returns from a ‘twenty group’ or an industry conference and announces, “Hey, it’s time to move all of our internet sales to a BDC”. So, the store would hire a few BDC agents, right? Gave them computers, telephones, headsets and sent all the inbound leads and calls up to the BDC, right?

The problem was that whatever volume the store was selling before the addition of the BDC was pretty much unchanged after the BDC was added. They just shifted business from what was the floor or an internet end to end team and moved them over to the BDC. There was no ‘plus business’. BDC’s should be driving ‘plus business’ and they can if they become profit centers and not cost centers.

The only difference for all of those dealerships is that they created this BDC and so, suddenly, they had this additional compensation cost that they had to deal with each and every month. See, these BDC’s were cost centers, they weren’t profit centers and they certainly weren’t developing any business, right? It’s called a Business Development Center. They are supposed to grow your business, develop your business. Now, over time, dealers wised up. They closed these ineffective BDC departments they had.