Would you consider letting a customer in the showroom leave after a visit with your salesperson who did not sell them a car? In an ideal situation (although it does happen), no. Each and every customer that you do not close gets turned over to a manager. Manager turnover is just as important in the BDC as it is on the sales floor
If you will do the same thing in your BDC, you will see your appointment set and show rates improve because of it. Every customer that your BDC has a conversation with that doesn’t get an appointment set, should be turned over to a manager (aka: manager turnover).
I love this quote from the movie ‘Boiler Room’ as it applies to every call in the BDC:
Now we are selling appointments, not stock, but the idea is the same. Either you sell the appointment, or the customer sells you an excuse for why he cannot come in. These are the calls that you turn over.
If the call exceeds 4-5 minutes with no progress toward an appointment, turn it over!
Sometimes it’s just a second voice saying the same things that the Business Development Representative (BDR) said that will make the difference. Transition with “I just thought of something, can I put you on a brief hold?” Tell the BDM you need a manager turnover.
The manager picks up, says “Hi, this is (John), I’m a manager here. I understand you were talking with (BDR). Were you coming in now or later today to select a vehicle?” The customer will be shaken a bit, since he was just voicing objections, but you can redirect him and hopefully, if he DOES bring up one or two of the same objections, the BDM will overcome them with the same rebuttal as used by the BDR (consistency is the key), and sell the appointment. Ideally you have Y adaptors on the phones and the BDR can listen to the T.O. and learn how the appointment was closed.
If the customer wants to schedule an appointment further out than today/tomorrow/next day, turn it over!
The common practice, and poor practice, is to say “We can’t set appointments out that far. I’ll call you in a few days and see if you’re still interested in coming in.” Seriously? You might as well give them the address of your nearest competitor. You just told them that their business is not that important to you. Set the appointment, but schedule a BDM call a couple of days later to try again to move up the appointment and confirm the customer commitment. I recommend that it is set because you actually did convert the contact to an appointment; the customer simply cannot come in for several days.
Sometimes, callers just want to speak with a “manager”, and that is enough to close the appointment. If there is no “close”, turn the call over. If you do, you will see the results on your showroom floor.