Why I Chose to Stop Supporting BDCs: The #RealTalk Edition
After being a leader in the Internet Department + BDC space from the beginning, a few years ago I intentionally stepped away from hands-on training in these arenas even with the large audience and great reputation I had built.
Why?
🧐 The Expense to Dealers-Just kidding!
In reality, this is one of the best ROIs a Dealer can see.
No, it wasn't the cost to Dealers or my ability to build a huge business around it.
You see, it was personal and professional.
I couldn't bear it.
It boiled down to this.
⭐The Time I Spent with BDC Agents Who Did Not Have Support
When you bring the best, widest range of proven solutions, only to have BDC teams sit in a room every day saying:
👉"But our Managers won't let us do this"
Or worse
👉 They don't say it, but they're thinking it.
Even worse.
👉They believe it works, they don't realize their managers will 'punish' them for doing something that actually performs...and then they are crushed, with no one to turn to.😱
❌ We witness these pictures online of happy people after a training, but we never see their faces upon receiving the disapproval of their leaders.
❌ We don't see the atrocious attrition levels of those in these seats pictured.
They remain some of the worst in the industry.
❌ We hear about the one 'breakout artist' who managed to climb up and out, but not nearly as frequently as they deserved based on their effort and contribution to the organizations they served.
When we began creating BDCs and Internet Departments, the positions were mainly categorized by 'people who are good with computers'- prove me wrong! You cannot.
In too many cases, this remains a department largely untouched, uncared for, underappreciated and under leveraged while still misunderstood by 'leaders in auto' all of these years later.
Only when Dealerships require a deeper level of the
Strategy, Consumer Acquisitions, Data, Vehicle Acquisitions, Call Centers, Time-to-Sale, Technology and more will I be interested in training their teams.
😰Until then, I could no longer take their money, stand in front of these groups, get them all excited and hopeful and know that all in, they were going back to environments not set up for success beyond 8-12% closing conversations. It made no sense. My integrity as an industry professional matters.
Until then, what Dealers need from me and my company is Leadership Strategy, designed to support them so that they and their organization can be more successful.
If you are a good trainer, you have seen firsthand all I have referred to.
👉 Where is the growth?
🤦♀️ Where are the people you trained last year-or even a month ago?
📈Where are the paths to growing Leadership?
❓ Why are we still talking about 20 year old 'success metrics'- that are not successful in today's vastly different marketplace?
⭐When should we be brave enough to have the real conversations that need to happen?
Let's Be #BetterTogether and fix this.
