March and April were shaky months for many dealers nationwide, and their vendor partners also felt the sting of less than stellar sales as a result. However, as the industry kicks off August, recovery appears strong and supply and demand are trying their best to normalize. Dealers are now largely focusing on eliminating wasteful overhead and making their departments more efficient than ever before. One such vendor partner who is helping dealers with this is Mark Sokal, a 20-year automotive veteran who founded Sokal Media Group and Webstreak. Now merged into one company under the name Sokal, this marketing agency has over 100 employees and well over 350 clients around the nation.
“We got really heavy into Sokal Digital, and we’re pushing everything digital, and we’re getting people more leads. Everything was going in the right direction,” says Mark. “Then [COVID-19] happened. Now we’re back going in the same direction and we don’t see the dealers taking advantage of the leads that they were getting…so we decided to open up our own [BDC] department.”
Mark is not a big believer in outsourcing BDCs to foreign countries, so they brought it in house and created the new department, Gemini, to focus on sales and service BDC operations. Gemini offers three channels to integrate the outsourced BDC to fit the dealer’s style and level of comfort. After incorporating the Gemini system, dealers are finding that outsourcing their BDC is saving time, money, and eliminating the staffing challenges that so often plague BDCs.
For more great insight from Mark Sokal, be sure to watch our entire interview above.
Did you enjoy this interview with Mark Sokal? Please share your thoughts, comments, or questions regarding this topic with host Jim Fitzpatrick at jfitzpatrick@cbtnews.com.
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