Q. We are continually frustrated by the ability and

willingness for our salespeople to call SF e-leads and

effectively set appointments that show up. When does it

make sense to build a call center or BDC and what is

your opinion of outsourced call centers?

This is a great question.  In order to give you the best answers possible I am not going to sugar coat anything.  Salespeople as a general rule are terrible at follow-up.  There I said it, and it hurts to say it, but it’s true.   Here and there in the different stores I am in I see an outstanding salesperson.  When I say outstanding I am talking of selling 30-40 or more units every month.  However, this is the exception rather than the rule.  One item these super successful salespeople all have in common is they have and use a terrific follow-up system.  Please note I said have and USE.

The concept of the call center or BDC came about because of the problem you have described in your question.  This is and has been an ongoing battle for years.  To address your specific question of when does it make sense to build or start a BDC department, the answer to this is yesterday.  I am a firm believer in having someone monitor the new leads, the follow-up and the phone calls if possible.  Salespeople are generally people and socially focused.  Their skills are not top notch at organizing and planning.  I have seen hundreds of follow-up systems start and fail over the years.  They failed because they depended on the salesperson to stay with the follow-up, and this just isn’t going to happen on a consistent basis.

Anyway, back to the BDC.  Your BDC department can start with one person part time or it can consist of several hundred people.  Set the BDC up to your store’s size.  You will be surprised at the appointments an expert in the BDC department will bring in versus the regular salesperson.  Once again, this is not because our salespeople are bad people.  Their skill sets are just different.  Train your salespeople on the correct steps to a sell, and let the experts in a BDC department bring in the e-leads.  Also lest I forget, I am not a fan of an outsourced call center.  

Vol. 2, Issue 1