CRM Companies are engaged in an immense battle over market share, but then aren't we all in one form or another? He who has the most customers wins! Or so that's how it would be if simply HAVING them was enough. As each CRM company dives deeply into the data, hoping to extract their next golden goose, the blogs, articles, and paid press releases fly around the nation. They started out by talking about "capturing the data" moved on to "garbage in garbage out" then "big data" and are now focused on "big data vs. better data." What's next? I guess the next wave will be called "smart data, or 'i'data." Someone had better trade mark that one quickly!

Either way this sort of thing has a tendency to overwhelm the dealers and all those involved in trying to get control of their customers, lead generation, conversion ratios, sold and unsold follow up, prospecting, proactive and reactive sales opportunities, and the list goes on and on.

In the rat race for sign ups they've left off a couple key components. I'm not sure why there is this huge blind spot for CRM companies, but for some reason there seems to be and it's costing our dealers big time!

The major problem with data is that it doesn't DO anything: Without being followed by proper execution that is, and the execution training seems to be stopping right after the install of the CRM. Basic use of the CRM and ensuring proper DMS/CRM integration is what seems to be on the minds of all the CRM companies in my opinion and unfortunately the dealer is left with only part of a solution. That's not good!

So what then is lacking? A dealer buys a CRM and gets it installed researches all the lead generation sources and listens to their pitch, telling them they're the next best thing and that they should buy THEIR products because their leads are the BEST! The dealer researches, AND researches, AND researches trying to plan the best strategy, buy the best products, and prepare for the most success....

2 years later, they still have not pulled the trigger! or worse yet, they have pulled the trigger and are spending all their extra money trying to turn those leads they're buying into profits. To top it off the factory is calling to tell them they are going to give their OEM leads to the dealer in the other PMA because his/her lead conversion rates much higher! AAARRGG!

To make matters worse more lead providers are popping up every day and offering to sell you more leads. Some like Truecar have even convinced you that you can't live without them. You feel you have no choice! You yell at the solicitor trying to sell you more leads, and say, "BUY MORE LEADS? I can't even handle the ones I've got, why should I buy more" as you slam the phone down. Have you been there? You told me you have...

Three little letters will make all your problems go away and could very easily double, or even triple your monthly sales volume in less than 30 days.

You need a BDC (Business Development Center) BDCs come in all shapes and sizes, if you haven't seen the video testimonials from the dealers around the country for whom we've installed them, see attachments below.

TK Worldwide started building BDCs because there aren't enough good companies out there that know how to do it right. Also, because we're in hundreds of dealerships around the country each year, our "best practices" come from personal experience and not from a book.

The best thing I can do for my dealer clients is help them relax about the hard part because BDCs are not that complicated. Understanding how they work once their up and running is a piece of cake. Getting them up and running is whole other ball game.

There are two major categories you need to understand about BDCs. There is SEO/SEM, lead generation, electronic footprint, web site, tracking software, call recording, and ALL that JAZZ! That's a very important part and without that you're not operating your BDC effectively.

BUT all that stuff comes second AFTER, you've actually built the BDC. You know, the moving parts. The part that no one else seems to be able to do effectively. Why do you think that is? Because before you have Perfect Productivity, you must have a Perfect Process, and PERFECT PEOPLE who can execute that process.

You don't have to keep throwing your money away playing the guessing game on ROI with your ad budget, or paying HUGE money for mailer events with nominal returns and maximum PMA and reputation destruction.

Before you do ANYTHING else you should increase the efficiency and effectiveness with which you process the CURRENT leads you have coming in. Then and only then should you look outside your dealership and consider spending money to move more units. As recruiters first that's they easy part for us.

As the nation's most effective automotive recruiter finding perfect people is what we do on a daily basis. It is essential if you're going to have the machine to handle all the leads you have coming in. You can't have one without the other two. Perfect People trained on Perfect Process, Produces Perfect Productivity. AND, there's the title of my next article! If you're BDC installer doesn't FIND, TRAIN, and INSTALL the perfect people, it's not because they don't want to. It's because they can't recruit. If you're not hooked up with an industry expert automotive specific recruiter, your BDC will not operate as efficiencley as it could or should. Without a strong foundation of the perfect people, a BDC will not stand for long. You can't make lot porters into BDC reps, and you can't take a duck to eagle school.

Simply put we started building BDCs because it was clearly an IN OUR FACE solution to assist our dealers in the fastest, easiest, and most obvious way. Our dealers were throwing good money after bad in their ad budgets and just hoping for a strong ROI. And sadly, the measurement of their ROI didn't even come until the end of the month. So, they had no ability to track instant ROI, or control their sales volume with pin point accuracy as they do now: At least for the dealers we've installed.

Once a BDC is built or rebuilt properly (some from the ground up and some already in various growth stages) our BDCs produce conversion rates of between 12.5% and 28.5%. Most dealers, I've found are just fighting to stay over the national OEM e-performance average so they don't see their leads getting handed to their friendly rival in the next PMA. This creates a false goal for the dealer where they're just happy to stay over 7 or 8%. Their benchmark should 12.5% and anything below that is less than acceptable.

So, I'm sure some of you may say, that number is too high and that's not possible. Just make sure your owner isn't near you when you say that. I do have some e-performance reports to back it up, but more importantly, here is a video testimonial from one of our stores. We built their BDC in 15 days from the ground up and it's been running out of a trailer in their parking lot for 12 months and has amassed approximately BDC 5,000 units in its' first year in sales. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhpBd82MwE4

Also, here is a dealer who used us in a new Nissan point in upstate New York who has hit number two in national sales volume 4 of the past 12 months and he tells you that 50% of sales are from his new BDC. In addition, he bought a VW store and we put a BDC in during his first month in operation and by the the second month his VW store was number two in the nation in sales. Here's that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpKeh7oQY14

If you want to see more, just google "TK Worldwide BDC" and there's PLENTY.

To stay on point, once the dealer has his or her BDC in place they realize something very profound. In fact we are working right now with a 17 franchise group, are on our fifth install for them, and if you contact me I'll provide you with their contact information. So, they realize that now that they have an effective BDC installed if they want to sell more cars they simply have to buy more leads. BUT don't buy more leads if your conversion rate is below 12.5% PLEASE! Fix your BDC first.

Once your conversion rates are around 22% on average, then you can look at buying more leads. Because you KNOW for CERTAIN that you will be able to sell 22 more cars per month by buying 100 more leads and hiring only one more PERFECT BDC rep.

Finding the PERFECT REPS, training them on the PERFECT PROCESS, so they create PERFECT PRODUCTIVITY....It's what we do. And that's how you make a CRM actually WORK!

Here's a thought, maybe all the CRM and DMS big data companies should partner with TK Worldwide so we can build the BDC FIRST and THEN they could install the CRM... hmmmmm just a thought. I'm always open to new and mutually beneficial alliances provided our customers come first!

Call me for a quote.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 888-350-3310 or you can email me at kbradberry@tkworldwide.com

Here is a list of some of the more popular and widely used CRM Companies out there today: DealerSocket Dominion CRM ELead CRM Car-Research XRM VinSolutions Moto Snap CRM Dealer.com Higher Gear Dealerpeak CRM Center CRM by ADP ProMax Unlimited Momentum Gratis CRM Drive 360 CRM just to name a few.

Authored by Kevin Bradberry (President/CEO) All Rights Reserved.