BDC - Tagged Posts - Auto Dealer Today

A Diminishing Cash Position

David Keller - This past year, most dealers struggled to make a profit or attempted to keep losses at a minimum, conserve cash and basically just stay alive. They were hit with some strange tax consequences generated by the headlines noted earlier in this article. Used vehicle wholesale prices, in most instances, were drastically reduced at December 2008 versus December 2007 due to diminished demand from customers. This resulted in LIFO income, rather than normal LIFO expense ...

Creating a Service BDC

Gary Kay - There are things you just never forget. It happened in the spring of 1994. Something that unexpectedly shakes your business soul so dramatically that you swear you will never go there again ... we hit a small slump, not a major downturn in service volume, ... Service is a little cyclic, just as sales are, although the swings are usually much less dramatic. I was determined that my service department was not going to dip further even if ...

Merging Business Development and Internet Department Activities

Kimberly Long - While credit for a sale and issues with the pay plan were problematic, Rimas cited a bigger concern: “The biggest reason [for integrating the departments] was customer rapport.” A customer submitting an Internet lead could be contacted by an Internet manager, a salesperson and possibly a business development representative (BDR) before ever visiting the dealership. “There may be three or four people that touch that customer before we even actually see them at the door,” he said.

AGs Don't Even Have to Open the Envelope

Thomas B. Hudson - A friend who is a consultant to auto dealers regularly supplies me with examples of direct mail advertisements from his dealer clients. Almost always, the ads he forwards to me are ...

The Foundation of the Special Finance Department

Greg Goebel - Some department managers self-prophesied themselves out of a job. After convincing their senior managers and dealer principals that SF was no longer viable and finance companies were not willing to finance the subprime credit customers, their positions were easy to eliminate as dealerships were looking to ...

Double Your BDC Efficiency

Jonathan Ord - Jack Maxton Chevrolet in Columbus, Ohio, and Allen Cadillac GMC Hyundai in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Both of these dealers have gotten creative in their use of a BDC, call center or combination of both. Hopefully, their method of success will give you some insights into how you can improve ...

It's Nothing Personal. It's Just Business

Ben Donnarumma - Buy here pay here is a very personal business. The moment you forget that simple notion is the moment you will start to lose your perspective on perhaps the single most important element of success in lending. People borrow money because they need it, and if you’re lending it, you better know what the money is for, why they need it and most importantly,...

Putting an Empty BDC to Use

Glynn Rodean - In the average dealership without a BDC or call center, the handling of phone calls is still abominable. In reality, business development is more important today than ever and cutting costs in business development can have devastating effects. In some cases, manufacturers are putting more pressure on ..

The Importance of Having a BHPH Web Site

Brent Carmichael - An effective BHPH Web site should have two primary goals: 1) to generate leads in the form of credit applications and/or contact information and 2) to collect money. Trying to do or be more will be counterproductive. Research has shown that today’s surfers have a tendency to exit sites that are too ...

How BDCs Engage: Phone Calls, E-mails and Twitter

Jim Rucker - While it is possible to complete the details of a car deal through correspondence and ship it to the customer, for the most part a BDC is still shooting for the all-important kept appointment, whether for new customers or be-backs. The tools, however, have expanded tremendously. Every BDC should be taking advantage of the new ways ...