With today’s connected customer, there really are only a few types of phone calls your team will find themselves involved with. Gone are the days of a customer phoning and saying, “I need something good on gas for under $8,000; what do you have on the lot?”

Today’s customer, whether a millennial or a baby boomer, has already done their research. They’ve looked at more than twenty sources of information during their nineteen hours of research before they ever picked up the phone and called your team.

They’ve completed their needs analysis.

They’ve completed their product selection.

They’ve completed their feature presentation.

Now, they just need someone to sell them a car! But, what they don’t need is a “salesman.”

I’m still a little surprised when I encounter a dealer who allows his or her floor team to answer calls. Whether it’s because they listened to some misguided, old-school phone trainer or because they just want to make sure their floor team “has something to do” (yes, I’ve heard that excuse), there are dealers out there today who put floor salespeople on the phones with prospects; despite the fact that most of these callers only want to schedule a test drive.

Of course, because most floor salespeople go into full-on salesman overdrive on the phones, the closing percentage for their prospects is about one-fifth of what a disciplined BDC can achieve.

Put that phone down. Phones are for appointment setters only.

Because the customer on the phone already knows everything about your inventory, they’re really just trying to find an easy way to buy. They don’t want to be sold and they don’t want to answer a lot of irrelevant questions. (They just want to get through this hassle called “car buying” with as few bruises as possible.)

Your only goal when you have a prospect on the phone is setting the appointment that shows.

Given the fact that your callers are looking for an easy way to buy, and your goal is an appointment that shows, there are only a few types of calls your team will handle and ALL OF THEM are better off handled by even a hot mess BDC:

Negotiating

When you find yourself on the phone with a guy who wants to negotiate the entire deal before coming in, you need to understand that HE’S NEVER COMING IN! He’s using you as leverage against his local dealer. Heck, he might be calling you from that’s dealer’s showroom.

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