Speed to Sale: Time Kills Car Deals
Introduction:
Herb, Charity and Terry McSpadden have a great time recording Dealer Talk’s first-ever drunk episode (totally Charity’s idea).
Join us for a hilarious conversation about how speed is everything in sales. TKD: Time Kills Deals.
Episode Highlights:
*Importance of teamwork and collaboration within the dealership.
*Financial implications of Covid.
*Providing Information: FTC Guidelines and Customer Expectations
*Recognizing the significance of BDC agents offering comprehensive information to customers.
*Striking a balance between control and accountability in setting appointments and providing information.
Enhancing the customer experience in the automotive industry requires a shift in mindset and a commitment to understanding and addressing customer needs. By fostering teamwork, providing accurate information, reducing customer anxiety, and creating memorable experiences, dealerships can differentiate themselves and build long-lasting customer relationships.
Join us in our next episode as we continue to explore key topics and trends shaping the automotive industry.
SEO Keywords: customer experience, automotive industry, salespeople, BDC agents, FTC guidelines, information provision, customer expectations, managing anxiety, warm transfers, dealership experience, personalized interactions, customer-centric approach.
đź“ž Connect:
Vendor Partners
đź‘“Foureyes.io
https://lps.foureyes.io/free-trial?feac=ALL6TT
🚙FIXEDOPS DIGITAL.
🎥Covideo.
đź“žCalldrip.
📱RunMyLease
⏰Highlights:
00:00 Introduction
8:00 Service Customer Satisfaction
23:40 Terry McSpadden
47:15 Sales PERSON
1:24:00 You Need a Car to Rob a Bank
2:05:00 It’s All About Being Positivity
2:30:45 Next Five Years
Subscribe to My Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFzze5QDo48HAS2K1kc83Tg?view_as=subscriber
*************************************
Follow the podcast here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dealer-talk/id1425674535?mt=2
*************************************
Transcript:
Intro 00:00
Welcome to the show. We hope you have a blast. Thanks for making time for the dealer pod. Another business leader he is a penny for you to say no regular conversation at that dealer.
Herb 00:12
What up? Welcome to another episode of the dealer talk podcast. You know, it feels like a like a new season for me. I feel like I haven’t recorded in a minute. Charity has been doing all the recording.
Charity Ann 00:23
You haven’t recorded. I mean, it feels weird to be on here with you.
Herb 00:27
So what’s going on, kid? How you doing?
Charity Ann 00:31
Oh, you know, I’m doing good. Glad that it’s starting to warm up. Well, there
Herb 00:37
you all something to look forward to? What? How’s it been? How’s it been doing the podcast by yourself? Do you like it? Do you enjoy it?
Charity Ann 00:47
I like learning. I enjoy doing the podcast with you. Because you’re just fun to argue with.
Herb 00:56
But I’m retiring from the podcast. Remember,
Charity Ann 00:58
now we’re not stuck. Now we’re
Herb 01:01
gonna do some. We’re gonna do some cool stuff for season nine. We’re gonna take a long break, and then we’re gonna do some cool stuff. I’m excited.
Charity Ann 01:08
Is it gonna be season nine? Are you gonna let me do season nine all by myself?
Herb 01:12
Well, I mean, if you want to do it by yourself, go for it, then I’ll be back in season. I probably like probably take the rest of this year. Honestly, and then come back and 2020 We’re gonna do things different.
Charity Ann 01:24
i You i got a probably and then it went dead. So say that again.
Herb 01:31
I said we’ll probably do. I’m probably going to take the rest of the year off from from the podcast in general. And then we’ll come back in 2024. So if you want to do a season in between that, by all means, do your thing. You know, I mean, you know what I mean? You know what I mean?
Charity Ann 01:54
I know. But you already know them.
Herb 01:57
Yeah, but we got a couple of good sessions left. We’re gonna have Mr. Sigler back on the show in a couple of weeks. So I’m excited to have conversation with him. And then the I forget the what’s the name of his book, The automotive architect. Right, Ron? I can’t pronounce
Charity Ann 02:24
the frickin tech people. So I’m excited
Herb 02:26
for that. And then we’re gonna have the I think it’s the founder or the CEO or founder and CEO of freakin tech. Frickin. So we got a couple, one couple a couple more here before we wrap up. So anyway, but today, we have an amazing guest, a fantastic. A repeat guest, a repeat guest that I didn’t get a chance to talk to. So I’m excited to do this one with him.
Charity Ann 02:54
Yeah, it was my first one that I ever did on my own.
Herb 02:58
Oh, that’s right. That’s so but this is Terry Mac, right. And he’s super. He’s a super cool, dude. I like I like the way he thinks he’s funny. And he’s got tons of experience. Men have been doing this for a minute. So you know, I appreciate the knowledge. You don’t I mean,
Charity Ann 03:21
know what I mean. So, you want to talk about my
Herb 03:25
shout at me. We’re having a conversation
Charity Ann 03:32
not trying to shout. Hello. Okay. Do you want to talk about
Herb 03:41
in my beard, look at that. I’m getting old man. It’s like, there’s only like black in this section here. Everything else is white. Dang. I don’t know. But I’m not gonna color it.
Charity Ann 03:56
I see. I’m kind of like that point where I’m like, do I color my hair? Or do I let it know see? When as a guy when you? You just look like you have salt pepper hair and it’s supposed to be like, handsome and attractive. Even like Who was that guy that played? James Bond. And Daniel Craig. No way back when? Oh, Sean Connery. Yeah. Even when he had like gray hair, he was all but women. You have gray hair and you just look like an old lady. Unless you’re like an rocket.
Herb 04:38
No, I don’t think that’s true.
Charity Ann 04:41
I’m totally planning the rocket supermodel style.
Herb 04:44
There you go. Like I think I think if it’s the way that you carry it, right it’s like confidence level that you have in it. You know, like some people pull that shit off you know, I mean
Charity Ann 05:00
I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.
Herb 05:01
We can do. We can do a drinking game with the podcasts every time herb says, You know what I mean? You take a shot. I have like one beer drunk off your ass. By the time a podcast is over.
Charity Ann 05:13
We should totally do a drunk podcast with Terry.
Herb 05:20
Ah, that’s a good idea. That would be fun.
Charity Ann 05:22
I have like two bears on my house.
Herb 05:25
I have some beers here. Well, it’s too early though. I don’t think that but that’s,
Charity Ann 05:32
we should ask him. Let’s do it.
Herb 05:35
Let’s see if he has beer and we’ll start to drink alcohol. The three of us while we’re on podcasting,
Charity Ann 05:41
that sounds fine. Terry would totally be down for that.
Herb 05:44
Alright, let’s ask her when he jumped on and see, okay. I know folks, this might get interested in what you’re saying. So anyway, what’s going on? What’s going on in the automotive world? What’s happening? You have any any news, anecdotes, anecdotes or concerns, preoccupations, questions,
Charity Ann 06:11
questions, comments, concerns? Hey, I saw an article this morning. This morning I’ve ever told you my weird thing about morning. So when I was a little kid, I grew up when my parents are from the Northwest. And so they have like a couple of weird quirky little accent things that they do. Like they put ours into Wash, wash their dishes. And the other one is morning. So when I was a kid, I thought that it was the th e SM morning. S m o r n i n g and I still every time I say this morning, I It’s like an accent thing that I hate about myself some morning.
Herb 06:59
Anyways, anyways. I’m sorry, folks, you didn’t hear that. I apologize in advance.
Charity Ann 07:08
In advance, it’s afterward. And they all know that.
Herb 07:11
I apologize in advance because this you know, it’s gonna continue to happen so
Charity Ann 07:19
that I just tell stories randomly all the time. Till I’m connect with the listener, Herbert. Right. It was talking about how I can’t find the article now. But it was talking about how the customer experience and the customer reviews on service. At dealerships. It’s been steadily decreasing over the last couple of years,
Herb 07:52
and went crazy. And as in negative, they’re getting negative or the people are just not,
Charity Ann 07:57
and they’re getting more negative. Yeah, but I think that’s a sign of last night is fine. And the article was talking about it was an automotive news article. But it was talking about how non dealership service centers were, are better equipped for customer service. That’s
Herb 08:17
not true at all. That’s the biggest misconception. That’s almost as big as a misconception as it’s cheaper somewhere else other than the dealership. Like those two things are the biggest, like whoever says that stuff hasn’t thought that through. So okay, so let’s break that down. What is the experience that you can expect as a customer? What would you define as an experience, if your service and your vehicle tell me two or three things that you would want to receive as a customer? So put your customer hat on? Tell me three things that you would want to receive? That would be like, Wow, this is a good experience when you’re servicing your car.
Charity Ann 08:58
A good price. Okay, not to
Herb 09:01
that’s not a customer experience. Anybody can do that. So I’m gonna veto that. No, give me give me give me other things.
Charity Ann 09:10
I’m resisting the urge to tell the story. I hate when they do the thing where they give you like five other things that they you could do to improve your car while you’re there. And all of a sudden the price of your oil up and up and up and up. But
Herb 09:27
that’s not an experience and that’s anybody like you’re getting your car serviced. If there are recommended things to do a car you should. The point of the service advisor is to advise you, it’s to advise you to take better care of your car.
Charity Ann 09:42
Okay, so I will say that whenever I’ve taken my car so my experiences that I took my car to get the oil changes outside of the dealerships for the first time and I kid you not a decade, last month, and first of all, that was This stupidly expensive, and I didn’t like the experience at all. Like, it was very much,
Herb 10:08
but I’m just, I want to get to that. But just I want to go down this path because I want to prove a point. Just give me three things that you if you go to service your car, give me three things that you’d be this is a good experience.
Charity Ann 10:21
I want it to be fast. Okay, one it to not feel like I’m getting fun angled into things that I don’t need.
Herb 10:29
But that’s not that’s not an experience. Like that’s talking about how the place looks shot on
Charity Ann 10:35
it to be comfortable and not feel like a man zone.
Herb 10:39
Okay, what else? So there’s two. Well, I mean, there was last, and you want an environment that’s more comfortable? Yeah. Comfortable. Okay. What else? Give me another one. One more. Convenience. You don’t have to wait
Charity Ann 10:59
to ride. I hate driving into the drive, I want to be able to park next to the drive walk in and let them drive it into the damn garage.
Herb 11:10
Give me Oh, my God just didn’t pick it. Those are not things. Those are not given you like five things. But those things don’t enhance the experience. Okay, you don’t I mean,
Charity Ann 11:20
I am not your target audience here.
Herb 11:22
Just give me one more one more.
Charity Ann 11:26
Time.
Herb 11:27
Time, okay, perfect. So you want it to be you said, Well, you already said you want it to be fast, you already said time. So you want it to be fast, and you want the environment to be more comfortable, wanna be cheap. And you want it to be affordable, cost affordable. Okay, so let’s break that down. If you go to a dealership, it is going to be it’s not going to be more expensive. You know, unless you’re taking it to a place, it’s not giving you apples to apples, if you’re comparing apples to apples, it’s going to you’re going to you’re going to get a better deal typically number one, if it’s within the first two years, it’s probably going to be covered under some sort of warranty. Number two, you’re going to have certified technicians of that brand that are going to be looking at the car and they can pinpoint things to prevent other things to happen in the future. Number three, you’re going to get the right oil with the right filter and the right you know or the right tires for that car with the right speed rating, all those things are going to match exactly to the manufacturer’s specifications. So in turn, if you take it to the dealership, not only are you going to get an A similar prices, what’s on the market, if you’re comparing apples to apples, right? If your car takes a five or 10,000, oil change, and you put 3000 miles, right, non synthetic or something like that, yeah, you’re probably gonna save some bucks. But is it really gonna save you money? You know, what if it damages the engine? What if it, you know what I mean? Like, there’s all these variables that people don’t take into consideration. So by taking it to the dealership, it is cheaper. As far as convenience, it can definitely be quicker at the dealership, the problem is that people don’t schedule appointments. And the problem also on the dealership side is that they try to squeeze people in and that messes everything up. But if the dealership is holds to their appointment schedule, and the customer is trained to to set their appointments, then it’s definitely faster. Not only that, but they can take you they have the shuttle, they can take you they can drop you off, you’re not gonna get that stuff that you know grease monkey or Pep Boys, typically, you gotta go and you know, some of them do offer that stuff. I’m not gonna say that they don’t. But the majority of them are not going to offer that. You have to you’re gonna have to go there.
Charity Ann 13:38
Comfortable and smelling. And
Herb 13:40
that’s the other thing. You talked about the environment, right? You want it to be comfortable. You’re going to tell me, you’re going to tell me that the environment at a grease monkey is better than the environment at a car dealership with amenities and free coffee and popcorn smell and nice comfortable chairs. You’re gonna tell me that you walk into these places, it’s dirty, it’s grimy, the the chairs have holes in them.
Charity Ann 14:05
No. Any of those things? I don’t think that anything I think that the dealerships are way better experience Absolutely. The article,
Herb 14:14
right, but I’m just yet like that’s just that, like the fact that that that people think that they’re going to get a better experience and an independent is freaking asinine. It’s ludicrous. It makes zero sense. Do so here’s the
Charity Ann 14:33
independent service drives. Is that what we call them independent repair shops. Do you see the stereotypes? That service guys are shady?
Herb 14:46
No, I think that that’s an industry thing. Like it happens at dealers and it happens at mom and pops and there are the problem is diagnosing that’s the issue when it comes to servicing your car. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of technicians that Miss diagnose cars, right? Or they don’t really understand what the problem was the vehicle and they make repairs. And there, it’s not really that, you know, they make mistakes. You know what I’m saying like there’s a lot of that in the industry. The other thing that happens too is just coins. Coincidence, coincidence happened to you fix this and that other thing breaks. And they’re not directly correlated, but it happens. You know what I mean, at the end of the day, you’re talking about a machine and after certain usage on any machine, the propensity for it to break down is going to increase. That’s just common sense. And it depends on your driving habits, if you’re stopping go driver, with 100,000 miles on your car, and you’re in the city in your braking all the time. And that’s going to be significantly more impactful and detrimental to the health of your vehicle than if you’re driving long distances, you’re barely breaking your car’s constantly in motion, all this, you got to take all that stuff into consideration. And consumers don’t do that consumers want their car to never break down, they want to take it to the place of repair, and they want it to be super cheap, and they want to never have to put any money into their vehicle. And that’s just ridiculous. Especially if you don’t maintain your car appropriately. Right, if you’re not doing the things that people get pissed off, because dealerships recommend, if you don’t do those things, then you know, guess what, at the long the long run of your vehicle, you’re going to be in a worse situation. When it comes to repairs later on, you’re pretty much pushing the expense into the future, is what most customers do. And I don’t want to do that right now. Like I’ll do it later. Okay, and then later comes and then later is more expensive, and then later comes and then there’s that that you push, push, push push to the future, plus new shit that’s going to break or, you know, there’s gonna need some repairing. So I don’t I mean, I don’t know that one for to me. It’s just crazy. It’s crazy talk.
Charity Ann 16:59
If you were very passionate about that one.
Herb 17:01
Yeah. Because I remember when I was managing, like people are just just don’t get it. Like, what do you expect, man? Like, that’s why, you know, I always tell the story to other other managers. Like, I just remember that Monday driving to the shop, and I would just kept driving. I was like, I just can’t do this anymore. I just Whoa, I’ve never heard this story. Yeah, so I was going into work. One day was a Monday morning. And I passed by the shop and I just kept going. I was like, Nope, I’m out. I just couldn’t. Yeah, I could not do it. The brain damage. I mean, I just could not do it. Not a single second more. It’s like a It’s a constant losing battle. For in the in the manager of a dealership. Operation is all they’re only putting out fires every day, all day. It’s constant. It never ends. And customers don’t the more you try to help somebody, the worse it is for you. Like, the more you try to help people, the consumer, the more they complain. It’s crazy. Like, you know, I stopped doing car washes, because it’s like, you get a car wash was like, Oh, you’re scratch my car. Now you got to paint the whole thing. And it’s like, dude, that scratch was there, man. Like, why not even wash your car for you know all the popcorn, it’s cold. And you get these stupid reviews on your your CSI score. It’s like, Dude, seriously, that’s the thing. Like, I picked you up 200 miles away, brought you here gave you a deal. And you’re gonna complain, you’re gonna give me a shitty score because the popcorn was cold. Like, anyways, that’s in the past.
Charity Ann 18:53
Clearly, oh, my gosh. I have. I feel I feel like that that’s a psychological thing where if you give people I don’t know, I like there’s got to be some psychological thing behind it. And I hesitate to say it, but when you give people too much and you’re like too nice to people, then they just take advantage of you.
Herb 19:23
Yes, yeah.
Charity Ann 19:25
Being just wildly cynical.
Herb 19:27
I mean, it’s not, you know, not all the time. Like there are people that appreciate it. I you know, there’s there’s two sides to everything, right. But when you’re doing it constantly, it’s hard not to not to become cynical or jaded or however you want to look at it. It’s hard
Charity Ann 19:42
to be sure. You don’t even work in any kind of customer service. Any customer service. It’s hard not to become cynical. And so there’s this statistic that says that the majority of people in sales are introverts. And I’ve always thought that that was just because introverts were better at reading people. But then the longer I’m in sales, I think, maybe we’re just all introverts are so sick of people.
Herb 20:16
Not you know what it is, you know what it is? The majority of people that end up in sales don’t end up in sales because they want to end up in sales because they have to. That’s, that’s the difference. When it comes to that. That’s my personal opinion, but,
Charity Ann 20:35
but the people that Haftar are all introverts are with the solid well, because
Herb 20:38
they’re naturally you’re naturally introverted, and that’s why they have to sell,
Charity Ann 20:45
because there’s nothing else that they can do. Which is ironic, since sales is such a,
Herb  20:50
but think one of the characteristics of an introvert, introvert, or an introvert person, well, I’m gonna be go getters, and, you know, like, put themselves out there.
Charity Ann 21:04
They’re they the quiet they get off of just being alone. They can read a room really well, I think, cynical. Yes, I’m an introvert. Not all introverts are cynical. To all my introverts out there. The cool thing, if you think about it, like you look at the way that everybody that you know, that’s in the sales world, everybody’s really social. Do we really hang out with each other after work? Or do we all go home? And just like,
Herb 21:37
oh, but that’s a persona. Well, I shouldn’t say that. Like that. That was me when I was selling like you put you have a personal sales persona. It’s not who you are, all the time. And I’ve said that before, like before, and I I got lucky. Yeah, there you go shot. I got lucky. I got lucky because I I liked the car business, you know, and I ended up get having passion for it. And I, you know, I like talking about it. And I’m very curious about it. But if I was selling, I don’t know, like software or some other stuff, like, it just I probably suck at it really, really bad because I don’t have the personality, and I don’t have the passion or desire for the product. So, you know, it’s just, if you can connect, if you’re an introvert, because there’s great salespeople that are introvert, but if you can connect that to a passion or something, if you can connect the sales role with something that you’re passionate about, I think that’s a winning combination. You know what I mean? So, and there’s a lot of things that can be learned, like we’ve had this conversation before, but I’m not a big believer in you know, closing you know, the closer manual to success or closing cards or the all that stuff to me seems like trickery. And I’m not a fan of that I like the I’m a I’m a believer in the
Charity Ann 23:09
the human experience, not so much
Herb 23:11
that it’s a discovery that discovery, discover the need and then try to fill in and if you can’t fill it move on because you have nothing to sell. Right I had a conversation this morning with a developer that you know pretty much was like hey man, I don’t think that this project is I don’t want to take it on because I don’t you know, I don’t want to take your money and I don’t think that this is something that you know that would be that would be advantageous for you and I you know I appreciated that like hey you know this guy at least is he’s being honest right when we talked for at least an hour before he told me that so he he listened attentively ask good questions. And so you know those things I think that’s a better selling method than you know if you if I can Would you like that whole thing? I’m just not I’m not a believer.
Charity Ann 24:07
To Terry’s in the lobby.
Herb 24:09
Yeah, no, I know. What will those things work? I’m not saying that they won’t work but they’re also going to create buyer’s remorse and all other kinds of things that I’m just not
Charity Ann 24:19
I yes and no light and maybe that’s just because that’s my like I’ve had you’ve had people under you that we were trying to get to sell products to so you’ve got to teach them how to do certain things. And not just
Herb 24:42
that’s the first time we added somebody into the lobby and they got off the Line walked away. I know. That’s interesting. I want to do this anyway, charity, what was that? Sorry.
Charity Ann 24:58
You’re fine. Okay, I remember what it was.
Herb 25:01
Well, we’re moving on. We’re moving on. Hey, we’re gonna do we’re gonna do we’re gonna do a drinking podcast area you down. Yeah, man, we have beer. You have alcohol. Alright, go get go get a drink. We’re all gonna get drinks
Charity Ann 25:14
okay
Herb 25:24
demand beer though not that like, full shit is that that’s like beer isn’t? Oh geez Come on man. I thought you were like a cowboy. Eight years to write on the board. Like I said, Folks, this is gonna get weird and interesting all at the same time
Terry Mac 25:57
he’s already told me you get an hour.
Charity Ann 26:03
You know what I think I realized that after I texted you, because we usually do at noon Pacific. And then Herb was talking and I looked down at the clock and I was like, It’s noon my time. Which means it’s not noon Pacific.
Herb 26:19
All right, that was Alright, folks. So we’ve had we’ve had Terry on the program before. So he’s no, no stranger. We typically kick things off with a background. But I think you already did that. So instead, tell us what you’re up to today. Man, I know you’ve got some, some new stuff going on. So catch us up.
Terry Mac 26:42
Well, thanks for having me back. You know, last time we talked, it was all about video communication. I thought to myself, wow, why don’t I get back on here and talk about communication? You know, and ex DC is a experience Development Center. It’s a virtual call center, that I strongly would recommend to a car dealership. And it’s really because it’s in the name, experience. And let me take this to the nth level. What we focus on daily with these agents with SDC. And what you should focus on in the car business when you’re training salespeople, anybody that fronts a customer via phone or handshake ought to be about communication, you know, what’s relevant? What’s what’s correct. And why are you communicating? What’s the end goal. And so often we do a terrible job in this industry, to teach ourselves people, our receptionist, I mean, who’s the poorest person in the store? The receptionist, the less trained person in the store? The recession’s but that phone ringing is gold. So what I’ve always been fortunate is knowing that and I was, you know, really, some of my best call center agents came off of the showroom floor, being a receptionist, because that’s where I focus my training on is talking to that customer when they call. So communication is huge. I’m in the communication business. I’ve been in the car business since 1989. And my common goal throughout my career, and I feel like it’s been successful, maybe you don’t think ever, but I think it all had to do with communication. And I would say that the three divorces that I had all was due to lack of communication. So I’m all about communicating,
Herb 28:33
write that down. Because it’s interesting. I agree. I mean, communication is key. But communication for the sake of communication isn’t necessarily the goal, either. And so when you have communication, yeah, but when you talk about that, we define that in a term that’s actually that I don’t want to see actually, but that that impacts the dealership in a positive way.
Terry Mac 28:57
I’m glad you asked me that. Because one of the things that we want to try to focus on when you’re training your staff, or you look at a virtual call center to help you with your conversion rates, and your connection rate conversation, a couple of things come to mind. First of all speed. Customers expect no matter where you go to a restaurant, to a TV store, to a grocery store, to a car car dealership, the customers have an expectation that you have to meet. And you got to find out what that expectation is. But being friendly and likeable is very critical. So one of the things that we look for, when we want to train this is, first of all, you ought to have some type of training or core values and we focus on on being determined for whatever type of campaign that you’re calling on. You got to be determined to drive that customer call to action. Yet charismatic, you know, if they don’t like you, if they don’t feel energy and you then they become low energy, and the person that has the best energy will convert that lead, and then and then and then having an extra nary way about you to go the second the longest distance to try to make sure that your customer loves doing business with you. Now, so whether it’s a virtual call center, or whether that’s a BDC at the store level, that’s so important, the experience from the customer, although,
Herb 30:19
let me ask you this question. And I’m kind of asking for both your opinions on one because of the call center aspect, but charity as a BDC. Manager, should dealerships have a BDC department at all? Or should they outsource that? And if so, why? Like if you think they should? Why? And if you think they should outsource it, why?
Charity Ann 30:40
Sorry, do you want to go first? And you want me to go first?
Terry Mac 30:44
Well, I can answer I’ve been in the car business so long that I was in the revolution of call BDCs installed in dealerships. There was a long time ago where there wasn’t enough outbound business that you can inbound outbound from a sales perspective, poorly, but we did it. But in the late 90s, here comes this new wave of people that want to install BDCs in the stores, with dealers thought, well, we can do this. And then they realize quickly, most of them, they have a hard enough time managing sales process and service process to try to manage a professional BDC. It’s not cost effective. So now you go in a lot of these stores. And there’s a dinosaur room with new killer weapon computers. Because they’ve been there for 1520 years, and they’re just sitting there and they’re dead. They’re unused, and it’s dark. Because it’s not cost effective. What we always tell dealers is do what you’re great at, right. And so if you can be great at teaching a BDC process and having that type of energy, and having the management process into making sure that you’re getting the job done, then you can do it. But I will tell you across the country, I’d say 85% of these dealers don’t have the competence or the time to deal with that. And so I would say it’s more cost effective to hire a virtual BDC that can that you can hold accountable that you can get the right mesh with to be able to be that for you and a lot less expensive overhead.
Charity Ann 32:16
So I would say that the biggest problem with business development centers, is they the battle between a Business Development Center and the sales floor, I’ve never been in a BDC that didn’t have that battle. And if you are going to have a BDC that is in the building with your sales guys or your your sales floor, then you need to have, you need to be bought into the BDC process. And you need to have a sales team that’s bought into that process. If you don’t have that you will always have a war going on. And the other thing that happens is if you don’t if you’re getting phone calls into your dealership that anybody who answers that phone needs to be trained on how to talk on the phone, and they’re not. And I’ve said this before, I’ve said I’ll say it again, this generation doesn’t know how to talk on the phone. They’re not taught how to do it. And we just assume because we learned how to talk on the phone, that they know how to talk on the phone, and they don’t. And so I’m not going to properly train them, then hire out.
Herb 33:21
So here’s, here’s, here’s my take on that. And we’ve talked about this before, but you know, we’re drinking now. So I feel we can have that battle, and it’ll be more fun. I think that the majority of what’s called BDCs in the dealerships today are not actual BDC their call centers. You know what I mean? Like if you’re the the name itself, Business Development Center, you’re supposed to be developing business. If you’re getting inbound calls from outs from from marketing initiatives dripping into your BDC. That is not business development. You’re just answering a question, a marketing question that was put out out there and the different channels that exist today? How hard is it for you to set an appointment on that? How hard is for you to answer that customer’s question? You know what I mean? Like I don’t I don’t understand why people you know, like BDC, gurus or whatever will argue with with me on this to the death, but I just don’t get it. Like if you’re developing business, you should be mining your database 24/7. And you should only be focused on doing that because that is truly developing business.
Charity Ann 34:32
Well, it’s because first of all, I think that there’s there’s two aspects of business development, there’s inbound and there’s outbound. So
Herb 34:43
that’s not your net developing business from an inbound call.
Charity Ann 34:46
You finish your inbound and the problem is that if you again, if you have not trained anybody to talk on the phones, it doesn’t matter what your marketing initiatives are, it doesn’t matter what your Saying, and you were bleeding money if you aren’t training people on the phones, because what you get, and I’ve done this time and time again, when I do those secret shops that you’ve everybody’s heard me do the secret shops, it’s shit, because they do not know what to say on the phone. And if you’re not going to train anybody to talk on the phone, then your
Herb 35:25
question, I get what you’re saying. But Terry, let me ask you this question when you hire somebody for a sales role in any of the companies or any of the leadership roles that you’ve had? Is that person expected to get leads to close business or they’ve supposed to go out there and farm and develop it themselves? They might get some leads, right? But it’s not it’s never it’s never a guaranteed thing, or nobody should ever get hired on the premise that, hey, we’re gonna feed you leads. And all you have to do is close them. Do you agree or disagree?
Terry Mac 35:55
I totally agree. You know, in every aspect of my career, business to business development is totally different than answering the phone call. I do agree with you charity, that training. First of all, it’s a lost art in the car business, I will say, the trainer, and then train the managers never happened, like charity. How much training did you receive to be a business development director, how much training came in and trained you to be able to do it, you probably self taught yourself or read or listen to or learn because, you know, obviously, you care about the product that you put out there. But it’s not happening. And so your managers can’t hold it accountable. can’t train it. So therefore, I’ll go back originally and agree with her that incoming is not BDC. You’re basically answering the call and you’re shuffling that call to wherever it’s supposed to go or answering questions. I would agree that a true business development center, his job is to develop opportunities for that customer. Now. Now we know the numbers and I can tell you that and hopefully you can get to this. But speed delete is so critical. I do my own. I just bought a truck last weekend and I hit Garou CarGurus third party lead provider. That’s where I was shopping. And I hit about five different dealers with interest. And you know, where I bought the car was the second person that called me right behind the first person thought the other four or five never even contacted me later in the game. But Harvard did a study here recently, Harvard Business, College Business, they took 15,000 records, and they made over 100,000 attempts on those 50,000 records and undoubtably customers that were engaged within five minutes. Or 100, there was a 400% fall with customers that were reached within 15 minutes of contact rate
Charity Ann 37:51
that I say all the time, all the time.
Terry Mac 37:55
So when dealer gets close, when dealerships are open, but they’re not when dealerships are not prepared to take a call refund dealership during the meeting, nobody can take a call who’s taken that call. And so I will tell you that having a professional call center whether it’s in the dealership or outsourced the professional being trained daily, being specific on having a beard specific
Herb 38:22
on I’m on my second one now I’m beating you guys come on.
Terry Mac 38:28
Be very specific on that call and knowing what you’re doing know how to answer know how to get the customer down through the funnel to get on to the store or onto onto the online buying process to complete the transaction. That’s what has to be taught trained and
Herb 38:46
paid. I think it’s it’s it’s key. It’s key in this whole thing. You talked about how the the business development centers should be developing business and what I mean, if you have a true BDC and you show me their numbers, and you tell me that they account for 75% of your sales. That’s not a BDC because there’s no BDC in the world that’s going to put out those numbers. A true BDC isn’t going to put those numbers out a true b2c That is focused on developing business cold calling people basically is going to generate business that you would not going to get that month those sales would have never happened at your store or your competitors.
Charity Ann 39:37
Well, and that’s why it’s so multiple departments. Big right. So I think that you’ve got what happens when you have it on in a dealership and as part of the sales floor is that you’re paying BDC agents generally on a base plus commission. And that commission means they’re going because This is commissioned work, they’re gonna go for the easiest, the lowest hanging fruit, we all know it, the lowest hanging fruit will always be an inbound phone call, it will. And so they’re going to take those inbound phone calls, and they’re going to work those way more often than they’re ever going to call. Yes, but my point is, hang on. And then what happens is, what you need to do is separate the two of them out and actually have two separate pay plans for the two different departments doesn’t work have
Herb 40:31
to it doesn’t work aspects, that does not work,
Charity Ann 40:35
like TDM. So
Herb 40:37
So here, here’s the way that it should be in today’s in today’s digital world. And I’ll let me finish it. And then you guys can tell me your thoughts. In the digital world that we live in today. If you truly have a if you’re bought into the concept that you have a digital dealership, then the leads the inbound that’s coming in from all your marketing dollars that are out there are your digital ups, who takes up at the dealership, the salespeople or the BDC, agents, salesperson, so send all your inbound stuff to the salespeople, right? Those are digital ops, instead of them sitting in the golf cart up front waiting for the BDC to set appointments for them, have them man, all those leads that are coming in through inbound efforts. Let me finish, let me finish. Let me finish, let me finish, let the BDC agents handle all the do all the outbound and don’t have expectations that they’re going to generate for you 75% of the business, take the 20 deals, or the 30 deals that they’re going to do in the month. And know that those are 20 or 30 deals, that would have never happened. The pie is the pie folks, it’s not getting any bigger, your market is going to sell what it’s going to sell, the only thing you can do is take market share away from your competitors. And if you’re if you truly have a business development center, that’s what they’re going to be doing. They’re going to be taking those opportunities that didn’t exist or wouldn’t have existed that month, and they’re giving them to you. Those are my thoughts
Charity Ann 42:04
and the true skill on the phones, the true skill is being able to outbound call. That’s that’s if you can outbound call and you can convert then you’re set. And I whenever I’m training, I tell people that you want to be really good on the phones, learn how to outbound call, because an inbound call. Terry?
Terry Mac 42:28
What I would say a couple of different inbound opportunities in every dealership you got somebody calling and you got inbound leads coming in. Obviously, we don’t in our call center set up, you know, we will take inbound. And that’s not what we want to do. Because I can’t say hey, how you doing? You’re being recorded for quality purposes? Oh, do you still have that car on the lot? I couldn’t tell you because I’m not there. So I do agree that salespeople should have a role in this assuming that we’re going to train them. But I also want to go back to what I didn’t get to totally finish your question earlier herb in my industry. And in my career. Even when I ran stores, customers, or salespeople, they had to produce their own business. They did not get ups until they started producing their own business. And then when the digital world happened in 9899, as it continued to grow into where it’s at today, obviously, there’s a lot more traffic coming in, not from the gate, but the digital gate, right. So there’s a lot more traffic up there that we need to share that with salespeople, because that’s just like UPS coming in, or phone calls ringing, which salespeople used to get that but we got to train them to handle it properly. And then the last thing I would add is because a virtual call center has full time job to do exactly what they’re being paid to do, which is different than a salesperson or a BDC or an internet department. I have some stores that have an internet department and a BDC is doing exactly what you’re talking about her. They’re there. They’re looking at data they’re trying to call they’re trying to call service customers, they’re trying to make new business out of nothing, the internet department’s handling that influx of leads coming in, and then getting them to schedule an appointment and then get them over to a manager or salesperson to do a call and confirm that.
Herb 44:14
I hate I hate that term internet department, by the way, and we’ll talk about that in a minute. I don’t mean to cut you off. But I want to put that question out there because I want to talk about that.
Terry Mac 44:23
Why to me I look at it when I’m when I walked into a store did an analysis and decided whether or not I wanted to come there and run the store from a GM perspective. I wanted to look to see what they were paying for what they were getting. And having an internet BDC is two departments and you can probably do away with most as long as you get your management framed up properly. Because well what I hate today is when when a BDC will schedule an appointment and then it goes to the dealership and they don’t pick up the phone and say hey, how you doing I’m here I’ve got the keys. I’m here. I wanted to meet you come ask for me can’t wait to meet you and you can’t get dealership Voice you can’t do agree with
Herb 45:03
Terry Terry. So you’re old school, right? You’ve been in those meetings. I remember dude, go, I remember, I never sold cars. But I remember being at the dealership and a salesperson would walk out almost crying from a finance manager’s office or a Jim’s office because they got paperwork thrown in their face, you’re going to tell me that they can’t get their people to do whatever they want them to do. Like, I just don’t buy that. The only reason they don’t do it is because the management doesn’t think that’s important. Because if they thought that was important, believe me, these people would do it, or they would get their, you know, kick in the ass so fast
Terry Mac 45:42
that I agree that it is top down management. You know, what you expect 100% agree with you, you know, you’re aware of stores that do a great job, and you’re aware of stores that do terrible job. And it starts from expectation and accountability from the gym.
Charity Ann 45:58
So what like I love the idea of a Business Development Center working outbound, and service drive and doing the stuff to generate more business, love it. But what it really comes down to on the dealership level, if you’re going to have is that you, you’re not training the salespeople to talk on the phones. And if you’re not doing that, you’ve Who the hell’s doing it. But think about totally secret shop while Terry’s on the phone, because it’s like, one of the
Terry Mac 46:32
one of the things that this company, one of the one of the things that this company has available is not only will we be your virtual call center, and help you where you need most of the help. But we’ll also put your team on a video platform and give them the training that they need, and give you the information. So you can hold them accountable that they are getting the training, because it’s really, it’s really, it’s got to do with a couple of simple things. And you guys know this, but you got to be charismatic when you take a call, right? You got to be determined on what’s the goal, right? You got to know what the goal is, you got to know the answers to the questions for you ask questions. And then the last thing is, you got to be extraordinary. What makes me different than all the other dealers and all the other colors. And all the other money’s what makes us different. So always train that gotta have five good reasons why this customer needs to get here right now.
Herb 47:23
You guys know, one of the bigger issues is the fact that BDC agents are not, quote unquote, allowed to sell a car online. There’s their objective, but most of the stores that I’ve ever consulted in is to set appointments, your goal is to set appointments. So whenever the customer says just set the appointment, don’t give them information. Don’t tell him this that what X Y or Z. And that’s,
Charity Ann 47:49
that’s prismatic, it’s just I sent
Herb 47:51
him a price to amenity, that’s what it is.
Terry Mac 47:53
It’s going back to what charity said. You know, it’s a fight between the who gets the credit, the salesperson or the watch
Herb 48:00
doesn’t matter. Like the person that was calling for information. The information,
Charity Ann 48:08
one agent, it’s usually the sales floor that gets really really really touchy about that kind of stuff. And for BD agents, they never quite understand why I think that sales guys, sales sales guys, I always say a sales guys, but I think about sales gals. I know exactly. I think a sales person, salesperson. Yeah,
Herb 48:29
thanks 2023. Clearly you don’t want to get cancelled.
Charity Ann 48:36
Sales people think that it comes out of their paycheck or something. I think it really weirdly,
Herb 48:43
but I did it. I haven’t been a salesperson, I get it. You want to have control, right? I get that. You want to have control. But you can’t hold the BDC accountable for setting appointments. And then don’t allow the BDC agents to give consumers the information that they’re asking for
Charity Ann 49:00
not only if you aren’t allowing your BDC agents to give the information that the consumer is asking you’re actually breaking FTC guidelines.
49:13
Now more than ever, businesses need more efficient sales. That’s why 1000s of dealerships trust for us to help with things like automated inventory, email updates, and ensuring all of your leads get into the CRM to try four eyes for free visit four eyes.io/dealer talk. That’s four eyes.io/dealer talk
Terry Mac 49:37
well, I got news for you that I got dealerships they won’t allow their BDC to quote pricing. I’m like why do you why are you just wasting because every other place is given pricing. Now you lose the opportunity you lose and
Charity Ann 49:52
not only that, but so to go way back to herbs question about they’re just answering the phone call All and fielding it to the wrong place or to the right place. The problem is that a lot of times when a customer calls in, that’s not how the conversation goes at all. They want to know things that they’ve already shot, right? Looking at how many dealerships before they call, how many hours before they call, and so you’ve got to be able to have the skill set to convince them that the value is in the personality of the person on the phone that says, You know what, we care enough about you that you should get in your car and drive across town to our dealership and none of the other ones that you looked at. And that’s the skill set for an inbound call. Yeah, that just
Herb 50:48
what’s going on, man, you’re not drinking, be
Terry Mac 50:54
drinking a beer with a dealer up in Ohio and doing some training with them. And I love their process. They had their internet BDC department take the inbound stuff, but every salesman was connected to one of their agents. So I want information now I’m ready to buy bang, they they preweighed the salesperson assigned to the agent. Hey, Mr. salesperson, we’ve got Mr. Smith on the line. They’re ready they’ve been shot and they want more information they’re ready to buy right now can you go ahead and help them and then to hot to that salesperson into the process to try to go ahead and take that customer down through the funnel. And I tell you as customer myself I pushed dealerships hard to get me in and out of the process fastest possible. I told you I bought a truck from CarGurus went down to Brickell
Herb 51:41
University of CarGurus cars man
Terry Mac 51:45
what I started the process anyways, I got there at they opened at 11 o’clock Sunday morning and I was done by one within within to our to our process sales process and our drive there are dropped back. Yeah, but
Herb 52:00
those deliberative, those things don’t apply to people like us, because I buy my cards via text message now, you know, like I send I like the car Hey, man, I want this car. they text me when the paperwork is ready, I go I sign I’m done. So like I hate
Terry Mac 52:17
her. But imagine a company that could do that. That doesn’t have to be that way. But people can’t by like us texting or doing it in two hours. Imagine if you
Herb 52:29
said I call I call BS because not I mean, but I’m gonna explain why. Like I hate like, people on LinkedIn to this shit all the time, especially the digital retail pushers. Oh my god. Like, you’re Why aren’t you doing digital retail blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, dude, no customer. And they say like, I did this and stuff. Yeah, of course you did that because you’re selling it and you know, the dealership, and you know, the GM and you know, the salesperson and you know, the GSM. And you just tell them, hey, I want to buy this car. We can’t talk about that experience. Because we’re not regular customers. We just don’t buy cars like the everyday person at this level in our careers. We don’t and we have to we have to be honest about that. Right? So I remember when I bought, you know, my first my first two cars and I wasn’t involved in the industry, and that shit sucked ass bro. Like you were there for four or five hours and I wanted to do was get out of there. Like, I haven’t forgotten those days. You know,
Terry Mac 53:30
special needs special needs credit yet you look you when they’re not out.
Herb 53:38
So so, you know, it’s just, it’s we can’t talk about about an experience that we are not subjected to it’s not fair. You know? Like, we were not the customer.
Charity Ann 53:50
It’s hard for us to fully understand. What is it like whenever I’m training a new agent, one of the things that I use as my example is how did you feel when you walked into the dealership for your job interview? How stressed out were you when you were trying to find a place to park? And don’t ever forget that? Yeah, because that’s how a customer feels every single time that they pull into a dealership?
Herb 54:18
Yes. I mean, hey,
Terry Mac 54:21
I teach a through z process both service and sales. I don’t turn wrenches but I teach. It’s always about communication. I’ll give you an example. If if if you guys were to say hey, I want to turn you on to a blog. Wait
Herb 54:38
a second. Give me a minute. Bro, I’m in my third beer and you guys nothing yet come on.
Charity Ann 54:45
Wine and a half. I’m totally buzz. Gotta get me drunk. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do is get you drunk. Do it, Terry.
Herb 54:56
Like I was I was talking. I was like Terry is probably going to do shots, you know, he’s from tax,
Charity Ann 55:04
like, edit any of this out, right?
Terry Mac 55:07
Yeah, but you’ll still have the goods on the run a long story, I don’t know. What I would say it is, though, if we were to do a blind date, and you put me out there and had no knowledge of the person, the experience is going to be very anxiety driven. Because, you know, I don’t know if I’m going to like this person visually. Or then if I do like her visually, would I like her, or anything else about it? We like garbage business. And think about the anxiety after you’ve already been through the back and forth with the salesman in the manager, the pencil process. Now they’re going to pick you up, go movie into a chair and wait on this other guy that’s behind the glass is going to put your paperwork together and go over all your financial documents. So that to process you know, build some rapport, or walk in say, Hey, this is Jimmy, everybody loves him. He likes fishing like you. And you can get that warm transfer over. It’s now not a blind date. It’s a it’s a warm date, and that anxiety level. So it’s the same thing about
Charity Ann 56:11
oh, yes, it absolutely has to be ordinary experience
Terry Mac 56:14
on that call to be able to drop the anxiety level, like you said, Hey, by the way, when you pull in, look for this, there’s the customer parking, when you come in, ask for Joe, Joe, there’ll be ready there to greet you with a coffee or a beer and a cookie and make this experience.
Charity Ann 56:30
And I love the warm transfer. Because I think one of the things that falls apart really quickly we see between a BDC and or whatever you want to call them, the people on the phone
Herb 56:41
and flow because they’re not being seized, they’re called
Charity Ann 56:44
the sales floor is that warm transfer? Like, in order to successfully do your job? On the phone, you’ve got to be able to paint a picture of the experience that the customer is going to have.
Herb 56:58
And but why do we call being scenes?
Charity Ann 57:01
Well hang on. So you want to paint a picture for the customer of the experience they’re going to have? And then if that is not followed through on, then the customer is on an immediate disadvantage. And they’re what’s the experience? Okay, so for me, it would be, Hey, my name is Bob. And I’ve got this car that I want to trade in. But I have no idea what it’s worth. So I really don’t know where to go from here. Okay, Bob. So this is what we can do for you. The first thing that we’re going to do is we’re going to have you come in, and I’m going to do an appraisal, I’m going to have one of my guys do an appraisal on your car. And while my manager is doing that appraisal on your car, he’s going to take your keys and everything my my sales associate is going to show you some vehicles that might work for you and maybe even take you on a test drive while your car has been appraised, the appraisal itself takes about 30 minutes. So at the end of that, we’ll be able to tell which kind of vehicle you’re looking for. And we’ll be able to give you a range for the value of your vehicle. So that’s the paint picture that I paint for the customer. If that does not follow through on the sales floor, if they walk into the building, and they’re like, oh, wait, we don’t do appraisals, unless you’re looking for a car.
Herb 58:20
So what’s the experience?
Charity Ann 58:21
We’re screwed up?
Herb 58:23
But what’s the experience? What do you mean? It’s not an experience?
Charity Ann 58:28
How was that not an experience?
Herb 58:30
It’s not an experience. Define the word experience? Because this is what every dealership in the country has wrong. Everybody talks about the experience. What’s the experience? Tell me what is the experience about that? Okay.
Terry Mac 58:50
Let me help me help. Because I believe in experience. Oh,
Herb 58:53
and I know. And there’s a way there’s ways and I can give you examples on how to how to have an experience, but that’s not an experience. That’s your process. That’s a process that you have at the dealership, what’s the experience? What are you going to do? That’s different? What’s the experience?
Charity Ann 59:11
What’s that initiator?
Herb 59:13
Yes, like, what, that’s what an experience is what is different about that than me going anywhere else? That’s what that’s what we should be thinking about.
Charity Ann 59:23
Well, and that’s something that I liked about what Terry said earlier is that he’s got his your three year three why’s essentially, the carer has charisma. And then what were the other ones charisma, determination of being charismatic,
Terry Mac 59:39
being determined,
Herb 59:41
and being parents either. Those are processes.
Terry Mac 59:45
Well, actually, actually it is. Experience is different for every person that’s not if you say, Hey, I just got an extraordinary experience, then that extraordinary as an action toward that experience. differentiator
Charity Ann 59:57
is the word you a
Herb 1:00:01
yes or no? That’s what an experience is an experience as you leave that place feeling something different. You feel something different. It’s a feeling. Yeah. Not different. Feel no context of this conversation, it’s a positive thing. You’re like, wow, you know what that place is pretty awesome. That’s different. Like, I’ve never bought a car in that way, or I’ve never had my vehicle appraise in that way. Like that’s, that’s different.
Terry Mac 1:00:30
Or, or that’s a shitty experience. They didn’t tell me the truth, I didn’t have
Herb 1:00:34
the car, I could have that too.
Terry Mac 1:00:37
So that. So experience is the feeling of the beholder. And so we got to train in what we try to train in the call center, world VDC and call center world is to have a differentiation in experience. You know, what’s going to happen at a dealership, we’re different? How are we different bang, bang, bang, and we’re gonna prove, and we can say the words, but we don’t know and
Herb 1:00:59
experience could be this, right? So what charity was talking about, but you can say on the phone, like Mr. Customer, if you complete all these things, here’s a cool thing, Mr. Customer, if you do all these things prior to your visit, I guarantee with confidence, I guarantee that you’re going to be out of here in an hour and a half. And then when the customer shows up, wait, wait, wait, when the customer actually shows up to the dealership, right? If they did all the things that you told them to do, they actually leave in an hour and a half. That’s an experience. That’s a positive experience, right? Because the average wait time is four to five hours. And if I do all these things online, I get to leave in an hour and a half. That’s freaking cool.
Charity Ann 1:01:46
And that’s what I mean by the warm transfer, that if the business development agent doesn’t have the power to be able to sell based on price, they don’t have the power to be able to sell based on any of those those financial factors than they have to be able to sell based on the experience that they’re going to have. And that experience needs to be followed through with it. Because here’s the other because the other side of that is that the customers the the experience starts with that phone call, and the customers first experience cannot be well, I can’t tell you what that number is over the phone, you have to come into the building, it’s got to be something that motivates them to come into the building to find out what those numbers are to to know that they are going to have an epic relationship with a dealership because that dealership cares about who the hell they are. And it doesn’t matter if that happens in the dealership on the phone, or if it happens at a call center on the phone. That has to be the first experience that they have. And that has to be transferred to the way that the sales associate is handling the customer. When they walk in there immediately like to
Herb 1:03:06
here’s the here’s the thing, that that an experience of positive experience allows you to do to you can charge more money, and people can gladly
Charity Ann 1:03:16
the happier customer spends more money. Everybody knows that.
Herb 1:03:20
So why why are we focused on that? Stop, don’t stop trying to sell the car online. Just cut the cut the time frame that the customer is waiting, they’re showing that that goes
Charity Ann 1:03:33
back to what Terry said about training being a dying art within the automotive industry, especially COVID babies and stuff they don’t they don’t understand the charisma and the finesse of sales. I think that
Terry Mac 1:03:52
like a roll is back to where we started our discussion. Do we really need it at a dealership level? You know and do Aryaman can it live in a dealership? It’d be outsourced
Herb 1:04:02
Wait wait wait you can’t you can’t talk to you drink the lab and what’s left in that in that thing we’re gonna pause here hey the writer pause here while Terry goes goes and gets another beer for at least another two hours so by the end of this podcast is gonna be
Charity Ann 1:04:33
here we’re here for fun. We would do this with no one else has because you just because thank you so much. All right. Cheers
Terry Mac 1:04:49
where I was going with this is is that because experience is so important. And the OEM talks about it. The dealer talks about we got a lot of talking going on but now Oh, action.
Charity Ann 1:05:00
Absolutely.
Terry Mac 1:05:04
So that’s why I would tell you to outsource your call center activity, because you can hold that company
Herb 1:05:14
to choke man, I totally agree. Okay.
Terry Mac 1:05:17
And I, I don’t expect that a, when I ran a store, I had a call center that took care of certain aspects of my process. But ultimately, it comes down to the people you hope most accountable, which is your managers. And with a call center virtually can only do so much and then the managers got to take it from there and manage the process. From there. I give total autonomy to any customer that says I want to buy now all the Hocus Pocus is out giving you the right guy, we give them to that rock guy, and we try to give them that experience. So some customers don’t know what they want. So Terry, in today’s environment, some customers want to do it online. And oh, I don’t see folks.
Herb 1:05:55
Customers don’t want that. Customers don’t want that. The numbers don’t indicate that I think there’s a lot of a lot of, you know, what’s that? Gazing? You know, fairy dust when it comes to that stuff.
Terry Mac 1:06:08
I can promise you your Mercedes Benz store does more online purchases, then Dodge Chrysler data
Herb  1:06:14
numbers do not support that. Listen, if customers wanted that during COVID, we wouldn’t overnight we would have seen increases in 20 3040 50% of people buying cars online. And that did not happen. It barely made it to 10 10%.
Terry Mac 1:06:32
Bear with me. Well, part of the reason was there was no inventory. No
Herb 1:06:35
man now because you could have put cars on order. You could do here’s here’s the reality, are you really you’re gonna tell me you Terry is gonna buy a car, a used car, you’re gonna buy a used car? Online 100%. With Eber out with ever getting in? It’s smelling and touching and feeling it? No way. But okay, but
Terry Mac 1:07:00
I want to do everything and then go down there. Right? You’ll have to
Charity Ann 1:07:06
go back to what Herb said earlier about. You can’t be the one that decides that. Because you are in the industry, you know, the differences in the nuances between the used used vehicles. Most people don’t, they don’t understand those.
Herb 1:07:21
I don’t buy it. I just don’t buy it. Anyway. Here’s my question to you, Terry. Like I started in the car business in 1998. Right. And I remember back in those days, people were still buying cars online. By the way, it was still very, very new. But there was not maybe not online, but shipping was happening, right? People were calling dealerships out of state and shipping cars and all that stuff. So that’s I mean, dealerships have been doing that shift for years, they don’t promote it for good reason. Because you don’t want to just ship the car out of your PMA you want to like service the car and build loyalty and, and all this other stuff. So that that idea isn’t. You know, like, that’s been happening for a really long time as my point. But what I wanted to ask you like, back in those days, there was no, you know, no, BDC there was none of that shit, dude, I remember these guys would start and they’d hand them the phonebook. And these dudes, like the receptionist, I remember the receptionist would call, it’d be like sales call line one, and you would see these people trampling each other to get to the frickin phone. Right? Whoa, I remember. I remember the top dudes when it was slow, they would grab business cards, and they freakin leave the dealership, they’re not going to be there waiting for nothing, they would go and trying to generate their own business, that shit doesn’t happen anymore.
Terry Mac 1:08:48
But it never worked in a store that I ran because it happens where I’m at an auto. I just think, again, it’s from the top down. I mean, we said it a lot. And again, we also know the facts are we all can talk it but we you know, these dealers have got to execute it. You know, managers are not trained to be managers, like they’re the best salesman or they knew a buddy that, you know, somehow they got the seat. Now they’re the manager. They don’t know how to treat, they don’t know how to motivate they don’t know how to do certain things that they could know how to do if they had proper training and motivation. I mean, it really starts from way up here. And it boils all the way down. That’s why I asked the question, again, is a as a external BDC. A good a good investment. And I would tell you again, because they’re professionals at what they do, and you can hold them accountable. You can get more out of it. And you don’t have the overhead expense, the HR issue, you don’t have any of that. The thing that you have to be clear on though is it’s got to be a partnership between that center and the management team. Because it has to be wired in for to be effective. Good and bad. I’ve seen where VCs do a great job and nobody confirms appointments, therefore, they don’t get the conversion rates. So it’s not a If it’s not a and only it’s an if, or you know, you got to have both both sides of the equation playing. And it would work if they did it at the store level and had management accountability. So often, you gotta set it, the top dogs, they’re out there they play in kids under the money under the table to get all the good leads, you know, there’s all kinds of games being going on at the store level. So the 20% that eat continue to eat and 80% that star continue to start
Charity Ann 1:10:32
with say that and this is probably because I’m a little bit buzzed. So my guards are down. That one of the things that one of the reasons that BBC managers and BBC trainers advocate so strongly for dealerships managing or in person dealerships is because they’re afraid of obsolescence. And if this is the craziest podcast we’ve ever had. Are you bust Terry?
Terry Mac 1:11:12
No, but I thought I would put this on because right now we have a draft and my good friend Jonathan Thompson at AMD dot team. He gave me this from a charity auction. It’s Troy Aikman, my boy
Charity Ann 1:11:27
Whoa, it has its site. Look at that.
Terry Mac 1:11:31
Number eight. Three Super Bowls. dynasty in the 90s. Can’t hear you herb. Sorry, buddy.
Charity Ann 1:11:37
Nope. We lost Yep. Okay, here you peach.
Herb 1:11:42
Is that Tony Romo signature.
Terry Mac 1:11:45
But that’s a little bit taller. Tony
Herb 1:11:47
is it to Troy Troy? From Henrietta, Oklahoma. See? Here’s the difference between Terry and me as I drink man beer and Terry drinks. Liked beer. Oh, yeah, no. This is the time folks asked me anything.
Terry Mac 1:12:12
But Jonathan. Jonathan Thompson. Thompson. Yeah, give me that helmet for my birthday. So
Herb 1:12:19
now live AMG folks, listen, if you’re looking for a company that has your back when it comes to data and centralizing everything and making a freakin awesome and beautiful looking and whatever, AMG that’s all I have to say. Just go to Google. Put AMG and you’re all set.
Terry Mac 1:12:39
I’m glad you’re gonna cut.
Charity Ann 1:12:42
Why don’t we cut that out? X? Because x dc, sweetie. We’re talking about 102.
Herb 1:12:48
I mean, let’s AMG is your competitor Michael. They’re not my competitor. I like I like AMG Jonathan. No, I did. We
Terry Mac 1:12:57
raised that
Charity Ann 1:13:00
guy, Terry. Hey, are you so the reveal is you’ll not
Terry Mac 1:13:07
record. I’ll tell you what’s on the plate. Yeah, you guys have no idea on a personal
Charity Ann 1:13:12
Biscay? No. I can edit and
Terry Mac 1:13:15
play this. But we were about to pick up. I know. It’s not a big deal. But we’re about to pick up OEM call center for Mitsubishi. You know, small step in mankind. But you know, we’re doing we’re doing well. We’re growing every day. I got agents, agencies, agencies, agency
Charity Ann 1:13:35
species across the country.
Terry Mac 1:13:39
Every every Mitsubishi store, we’re going to be their selected call center.
Charity Ann 1:13:44
Mitsubishi store here and
Terry Mac 1:13:48
no, you gotta go to Utah. You gotta go up there, too.
Herb 1:13:51
That’s how we lost charity. She’s out.
Terry Mac 1:13:55
She had her last glass of wine. So Salt Lake City. That’s your closest Mitsubishi.
Herb 1:14:03
But yes,
Terry Mac 1:14:04
yeah. See, we hear you. But I think overall, you know, I’m still consulting with CO CO video. I’m a co video Ambassador Jusco video on our Call Center Services. It’s kind of our video is
Herb 1:14:16
awesome, too. So if you’re looking for like video, email or a kind of like an old CPO program for your service department, Canaan’s communications, all that stuff, check out cool video. It’s really badass. And you could truly it’s not just a one channel approach, like they have multiple things. You can do mail, social media, you can do all kinds of stuff. So for sure.
Terry Mac 1:14:40
I did want to say that you know, in your call center, whether it’s in store our store, one of the things our biggest conversion rate that we see is unsold showroom traffic. So you might think that if you come in and you don’t buy a car and you leave it the salesman, the manager, they’d be calling you back trying to get you back in You wouldn’t believe that they don’t call you back. And they do. It’s weeks down the road. So we do what we have three strings, trade cycle buyback campaigns, reinstall re institutional service recovery, grabbing those customers back that hadn’t been in in a while, and service and then unsold showroom ups. And because again, managers are unmanaged, not held accountable, salespeople are lazy. And to be able to take that data three days after a customer says no, it leaves the store and reengage them from a call center perspective and redevelop that customer that,
Herb 1:15:38
you know, that you’re talking about right now. Right? That’s what they that’s their low hanging fruit. They set appointments for the same person 15 times and they get paid on it too. Well, it’s like Dude, come on. Come on. Well, it’s true. Is it not true? But I will tell you
Charity Ann 1:15:58
Okay, first of all, all right, let’s just let’s just stop there for a second if the customer is willing to walk back into the dealership 15 times. Is that really? BDC Why should a salesperson because he can’t freaking close a customer has been in the dealership 15 times you might have
Terry Mac 1:16:17
incremental credit or a serious hook edge on his vehicle.
Herb 1:16:23
But anyway, I want to get to something that we talked about earlier that I’ve been meaning to talk about. And I was waiting till I was buzzing enough to bring it up because this is my biggest pet peeve. And I’m gonna like fucking go all out. Right now.
Charity Ann 1:16:37
Oh, no. Terry, you’re gonna forgive us for No, no,
Herb 1:16:41
no, we’re gonna this is gonna be we’re gonna. We’re gonna we’re gonna talk this out. What tough rock? Right is going on with these internet department? Isn’t the whole damn store and internet department? Why do you need an Internet department in 2023? Somebody please explain that shit to me. I do not get it.
Terry Mac 1:17:05
I thought you’re going to talk about spreadsheets with all this anger coming from you just throw spreadsheets out there to tell us how you Oh, yeah. Well, I like
Herb 1:17:13
spreadsheets because a lot of my business is done with Excel. So let’s, let’s not get crazy. But
Charity Ann 1:17:22
at the end of the day, at the end of the day, Herb is a number sir.
Terry Mac 1:17:27
Honestly, Brother, you’ve been in the car around the car business. You cannot you have to hold a small group of people accountable for certain things because it’s all about timing. If you let these frickin salespeople keep them in charge of getting back with customers. You’re done.
Herb 1:17:43
Okay, I bike a bike. But then we can’t have we cannot have the concept of having a digital dealership. Because if you have a digital dealership, your salespeople should be taking your digital ups. So either get off that fucking conversation and never tell me again. Oh, my digital dealership. Right? Yeah, that doesn’t make sense.
Terry Mac 1:18:10
You guys. Have you guys? Have you guys heard of roadster? Yeah, of course. So roadster became a really big in the in a really, really big now they’re even bigger because CDK bottom, but roadster really made their name during the pandemic. Now I had 17 stores that I was training sales process and I quickly converted into teaching these guys how to convert roadster customers, how am online if they’re going to use roadster to try to sell them a car, put them quickly on a zoom and walk them through the steps instead of thinking they’re gonna walk themselves through the steps if you hang up. So there’s still a people component to it. Although a customer can do it by themselves, but they’re not going to do it. salesperson BDC manager internet department, take that customer put them on a zoom and walk them through the roaster process to get them through the funnel and get them to the delivery process. That’s how we were successful in converting online roaster deals one of the highest in the countries with Rick case Automotive Group because of the way we set that process up by using
Herb 1:19:15
if we’re going to do that to help right if we’re going to do that, which I don’t disagree with it. But here’s the thing, I don’t disagree with it. I disagree with the setup, because it’s stupid. It doesn’t make sense. If you’re going to have a BDC department and internet department just make your BDC team, your internet team, right one, you don’t need two different departments. And then let the BDC agents answer customers questions and don’t handcuffed them to the appointment. Right? It doesn’t make sense and then train them. Here’s the other thing that you need to do. You need to train them just like you train your salespeople. So they should be in all the meetings. They should be in all the trainings. Anything that you’re doing that’s related to sales, the BDC agents should participate then, you know, like, but you can’t have this BDC team in one island and your internet department in another island and your salespeople in another island. That’s stupid. It doesn’t make sense.
Intro 1:20:14
We only hopefully will restrict the vendor LexisNexis we don’t sell. We inspected with our DC vendor management.
1:20:25
Now more than ever, businesses need more efficient sales. That’s why 1000s of dealerships trust for us to help with things like automated inventory, email updates, and ensuring all of your leads get into the CRM. To try four eyes for free. Visit four eyes.io/dealer talk. That’s four eyes.io/dealer Talk
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dealer-talk/support