For many dealerships, the focus of the BDC is handling inbound leads. These are the customers who’ve already made an effort to reach out—whether through a phone call, an online inquiry, or a visit to your website. But here’s the challenge: relying solely on these leads is limiting.
Incremental sales come from efforts that wouldn’t have occurred without proactive action. This includes outreach to existing customers in your database, engaging with customers who visited your website but didn’t interact, and following up with leads that haven’t yet closed. When your BDC actively generates these new opportunities, you’re not just taking what comes to you—you’re creating a whole new revenue stream.
This is key to your BDC’s ROI. Every lead that converts without requiring expensive marketing efforts, such as purchasing third-party leads, significantly reduces your overall cost per sale. And in the automotive world, that’s a game-changer.
The role of the BDC should extend beyond simply working with inbound traffic. With modern technology and data analytics, your BDC can unlock new opportunities for lead generation. Technology partners can help increase website conversion rates by targeting the 40% of traffic that doesn’t result in engagement. This means you’re capturing “missing opportunities” that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
In addition, through tools like QoreAI, you can identify and score potential leads already within your CRM and owner database. These are often high value leads that might be close to a buying decision but haven’t yet reached out. By using advanced AI-driven scoring, you can focus your BDC’s efforts on leads with the highest likelihood of conversion.
Interestingly, many dealers heavily focus on showroom traffic, often overlooking digital retail opportunities.
With the right digital retail process—particularly one that goes beyond your immediate marketing area—your BDC can attract new customers from outside your region, driving incremental sales where other dealerships might miss out.
Dealerships are sitting on a treasure trove of valuable data, yet many don’t fully leverage it. Your customer database—whether it’s previous buyers, service customers, or leads that have gone cold—is a goldmine waiting to be tapped.
One of the biggest advantages of working with your database is the low cost per lead and sale. Unlike leads purchased from third parties, which can be expensive, the leads in your database are already familiar with your dealership. This familiarity often leads to higher conversion rates and lower acquisition costs.
By targeting past customers for trade-in opportunities or re-engaging leads that didn’t convert the first time, you can generate incremental sales that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Additionally, by focusing on website visitors who don’t engage, your BDC can turn missed opportunities into successful sales, further lowering your cost per sale and improving overall ROI.
Not all leads are created equal, and when it comes to the success of your BDC, lead quality is everything. It’s essential to focus on leads that are more likely to convert rather than casting a wide net with low-quality prospects.
Leads from your local area, or those who are genuinely interested in purchasing a vehicle, are much more valuable than leads from external providers with little connection to your dealership. This is where having a strong digital retail platform, like QoreAI, can help filter and prioritize leads based on their quality and potential to convert.
Additionally, simple practices, such as requiring a phone number on lead forms, help ensure higher-quality leads. It’s also important to avoid leads from third-party sources that provide alias email addresses or phone numbers, which can skew your marketing efforts and waste your BDC’s time.
Now that we’ve explored the importance of incremental sales and the role your BDC can play in lead generation and ROI, it’s worth considering your dealership’s approach. Here are a few key questions that might help you refine your strategy:
Lead Generation: How does your BDC approach lead generation beyond traditional inbound leads? Are you actively targeting visitors to your website who haven’t engaged yet? What tools are you using to identify high-potential leads in your database?
Incremental Sales: Do you have a clear strategy for driving incremental sales? Are you focusing on both past customers and fresh leads? How are you measuring the impact of these efforts?
Cost Per Sale: How do you calculate your cost per sale, and are you tracking how BDC-generated leads compare to leads from other sources, such as paid marketing or third-party lead providers?
Lead Quality: What steps are you taking to ensure that your BDC is working with high-quality leads? How do you filter out low-quality leads, and are you using data analytics to prioritize your best opportunities?
Your answers to these questions can help shape the future success of your BDC and ensure that it not only handles inbound leads but becomes a powerful engine for generating incremental sales. Unlock the true potential of your BDC by leveraging your existing resources and focusing on quality, proactive outreach, and the goldmine in your database. After all, in today’s market, the dealership that’s proactive wins.
Unlock Incremental Sales with AllCall
If you’re looking to turn your BDC into a true growth engine, it’s time to go beyond just managing inbound leads and start focusing on generating incremental sales. By leveraging the untapped potential in your database and converting website visitors who don’t engage, your dealership can dramatically improve ROI and reduce your overall cost per sale.
At AllCall, we specialize in helping dealerships just like yours generate more high-quality leads and drive down the cost per lead. Through our technology partnerships and expertise in lead scoring with platforms like QoreAI, we can help you identify and prioritize the opportunities that will deliver the best results. Whether it’s re-engaging past customers, converting “missing opportunities,” or fine-tuning your digital retail process, our team is ready to help you unlock new levels of success.
Contact our MysteryConcierge for a free mystery shop of your store to analyze how leads are handled.
