BDC is not always the answer

Sending Finance leads to Business Development Centers (BDC) may seem like an obvious strategy for car dealers, but it can actually be harmful in the long run. BDCs are primarily designed to handle customer inquiries regarding make/models of the store’s brand or a used car currently in inventory, but they are not typically designed nor trained to handle the very different conversation required to convert Finance leads into car deals. There are myriad reasons that improperly handled leads can result in reduced sales and frustrated staff.

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Lack of expertise: The best BDC’s are typically run by a manager who understands the importance of having a defined process for working leads, driving that process via their CRM.? Countless hours of effort go into building and refining the various touch points in that process to maximize opportunities, with the manager understanding their specific KPI and using those numbers to drive results.? Since most leads coming into the sales funnel have expressed interest in a specific vehicle the conversation (automated emails/texts as well as actual people interacting with customers) are built to assume that we are going to talk to customer X about vehicle Y.? Finance leads are not tied to a specific car but are folks looking to understand their options for financing so the outstanding process that a BDC manager has in place is short-circuited from the beginning.? I can’t count how many CRM emails I’ve seen sent to a Finance lead that start with “Dear John Smith, I see that you are interested in our N/A”.? Hardly a great first impression.????

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Compressed timeline: While many BDC’s will tell you that they follow up with leads for 90+ days, much of the effort is usually packed into the first 3 days at which point a series of “evergreen” automated emails are periodically fired out.? This process does not work effectively for Finance leads.? Folks who submit their information looking for help with financing a vehicle often do so because they know that their credit is not perfect, making them more reserved initially as they try to figure out if they trust your dealership to help them without taking advantage of their situation.? A recent 6-month study revealed that of the applicants who purchased a vehicle 69.85% did so between days 31-180.???

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Poor customer experience: When customers are looking for financing options, they often have questions and concerns that require expert guidance. If they are directed to a blended BDC, they may not receive the kind of personalized attention that they require, which can lead to poor customer experience. Increasingly the BDC representative is the only person with whom a potential customer has any interaction, if we’re putting BDC agents in the position of trying to handle these customers without a full understanding of their situation we are putting everyone in a position to fail.??

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Lost sales opportunities: When Finance leads are sent to a BDC, there is a risk that they will be mishandled or lost altogether if the BDC has not been specifically trained to handle these unique customers.? In our “Right Now” online world there are no second chances, if the customer does not feel comfortable after their initial contact from your store they aren’t going to complain or ask for a manager, the internet is a big place and starting the process over with a new application on a different site is nothing more than a few keystrokes. Not having a Finance specific process that grabs control of the customer will result in lost sales opportunities for the dealership.?

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In conclusion, sending Finance leads to Business Development Centers (BDC) may seem like an easy solution for car dealerships, but it can ultimately harm the dealership's sales and customer experience. BDCs are not typically equipped to handle the unique needs of finance customers, and the lack of expertise, compressed timeline, and poor customer experience can lead to lost sales opportunities. However, there is a simple solution. Dealerships can dedicate a salesperson or team to work specifically with credit-challenged customers and provide them with the necessary training and resources to effectively convert finance leads into car deals. By taking this approach, dealerships can improve their chances of success and increase their revenue.?