A 10-minute daily huddle at the beginning of each shift is a great way to point your business development center in the right direction.
Gather your team together and tell the receptionist to hold calls. You might be surprised at how much you can accomplish in just 10 minutes if you are prepared and focused.
Go in with a game plan. Know what you want to cover. A basketball coach will call a timeout and show some of the best players in the world how they should execute the next play. You can do the same. Here are a few topics for discussion:
- What appointments from yesterday showed/no-showed.
- Who was sold and/or delivered yesterday.
- Today's service availability.
- Today's loaner availability.
- Who has the day off in sales, service and the BDC.
- Role-play how to handle different types of objections.
- Today's scheduled appointments.
- Which appointments for today still need to be confirmed?
- Which customers will be getting a sales or service survey?
- What each person in the BDC will be doing that day.
- A brief discussion on the BDC rate of travel. Is the team on pace to reach their goals for sales and service production?
The daily huddle enables a BDM to take everyone's temperature and provide direction.
People management needs to be done everyday so a small problem doesn't become big. Communicate with your team. Let them know your job is to remove obstacles that may prevent them from achieving greater success.
The pace of the leader always determines the pace of the pack so let them know you are in a great mood, that you are on top of your game, and that the team is going to have a phenomenal day.
End the huddle on a positive note and get everybody on the phones for a day of productivity.
Give the dealership general manager a list of what you just discussed in the huddle. He or she will soon realize what kind of manager and leader you are and will expect more from other department heads.
That alone will raise the level of play in your dealership and help cement the BDC as an integral part of its success.
