If you want to improve and strengthen the operation of your dealership Business Development Center (BDC), it’s not uncommon to bring in a third-party trainer. A third-party trainer can provide you an evaluation of your processes, team performance, and show you areas for improvement. They can train your team based on the best practices of other high-performing BDCs so you see real results very quickly. However, if you want your BDC to continue to perform at that level, long after the third-party trainer is gone, there are some things you need to do to keep the organization, structure, and improved processes in place.

BRING pride and professionalism to your BDC.

How? Have your BDC Manager (BDM) bring praise and feedback to your staff daily. Let them know where they’re doing a great job, and at the same time, give feedback on what might be done differently. This will help them bring pride and professionalism into each and every encounter with a prospective customer, whether written or verbal. Make sure that each and BDC every day, the staff is at their desks, logged into the CRM, paper, and pen handy, before the phone starts to ring. Start the day with a motivational phrase to get everyone pumped and ready to seize the day! I trained at a dealership that has the receptionist read a motivational phrase over the P.A. system at the start of the day for the benefit of the entire staff. If not that way, have your BDM choose one and post it on the BDC whiteboard each morning. Believe me, it’s a terrific way to start the business day! Be receptive to the needs of your BDC, encourage your BDM to come to you or the GM with any challenges that they need help with.

DAILY work plan completion in the CRM

Daily work plan completion by both BDM and Business Development Representatives (BDR) alike, along with daily coaching by the BDM, role-playing, and call review will ensure that the standards set for your team are being met; If there are absent team members, the BDM should ensure that someone is filling in the gaps so that neither lead follow up nor team productivity suffers. This is important for both tenured BDC staff and new hires. If the BDM has tenured BDRs assisting new team members, you need to know that everyone involved fully comprehends what to do and how with regard to everything from word track usage to different call protocols. For the role-play, it doesn’t have to be the same thing, i.e. objection rebuttals, all the time. Have the BDM mix it up. Roleplay current and new phone greetings for inbound calls, outbound calls, voicemails, any and all verbal communication. Your BDM should keep an eye on process implementation daily to be sure it’s being followed exactly as you want it to be. If you back off, so will your team.

CONSISTENTLY following through

Consistently following through with your team will show support of their efforts. Start with short term, attainable goals.

• You need to facilitate daily call review by the BDM.
• One call per day reviewed per BDR, ideally in person. If time does not always permit, pull a call per BDR, critique it, and send written evaluation/comments via email to the BDRs, but make sure there is one call per person per day. Ideally, it would be one inbound and one outbound if you have recording in place for both.
• Your BDM should be facilitating role play with the BDC staff every day for fifteen minutes. It should include the presentation of a setting which will allow the BDR to role play, then the BDM should provide feedback on the activity to everyone. Sit in on a few of these sessions each month to reinforce your expectations of this happening.
• The BDM should conduct, at the very least, one 20 minute meeting per week (I prefer Monday AND Friday with full staff presence), to go over challenges for the week, news, feedback and Q&A from the team, introducing a new creative or promotion). It’s a good idea for you or your GM to sit in on at least one of these meetings per month to again reinforce your expectations of the team. The BDM should prepare a written agenda that is distributed to the team members with bullet points and room for notes.

Track your BDC’s progress, show them your commitment and expectations for the success of the team, and they will honor theirs as well. You must set the pace. If you aren’t consistent and don’t follow through, they won’t either.