Q  We are continually frustrated by the ability and willingness for our salespeople to call SF e-leads and effectively set appointments that show up.  When does it make sense to build a call center or BDC, and what is your opinion of outsourced call centers?

A  First of all, we are talking about a call center—not a BDC.  A call center makes outbound phone calls to leads in order to set appointments and field inbound calls to the department.  In comparison, a BDC will spend a large amount of time mining a dealerships database in order to promote business in all departments, as well as follow up with sales and service customers to foster strong CSI.

In my opinion, there isn’t a set volume of SF leads, number of deals or department size where you automatically say, a dealer needs to have a call center.  Certainly lead count has a significant impact on it, but so does the proficiency of the staff working those leads.

Leads progress from green to ripe to rotten at an unbelievable pace.  What I look at before recommending a call center (whether internal or outsourced) is how many leads and/or inbound SF phone opportunities does the dealer have and how many sales people work these leads.  I also look at how the activities are being measured, how often these people are trained, who’s doing the coaching and what the existing appointment and setting ratios are.

If you have a high volume of leads available or if you have a large number of people fielding phone calls with relatively little supervision or coaching, then my recommendation is to find a way to put together a call center.  My stores were forced to set one up 36 hours after we launched our first infomercial.  We had so much phone traffic and leads that needed to be handled, we had to implement a dedicated, well-coached team to handle the calls immediately.

Consistent use of call guides or scripts is imperative.  The challenge of working the leads through a large sales staff is that coaching is difficult, and managing the consistency of the calls becomes next to impossible.

Finally, lead volume is a relative thing.  If a dealership with a relatively small overall sales volumes has a high percentage of SF leads, it is quite possible that it would benefit from the use of a call center.

As I said earlier, there is no magic number, but whatever allows your department to consistently execute, measure and manager the calling activities through the fewest number of people makes sense to me.  That often means a call center.

Greg Goebel
Greg Goebel Training & Consulting

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