A business development center (BDC) is a separate dealership department that brings in sales and service clientele. Matt Raymond, Chief Operating Officer at Bowtie Solutions, recently joined Jim Fitzpatrick on the CBT stage at the 2023 Digital Dealer conference to discuss his dealer-built program.
Raymond began his retail automotive journey 13 years ago when he came right out of the business development center and grew to be a marketing manager. Raymond then got recruited to North Carolina to build a dealership’s BDC from the ground up in both sales and service. Throughout the process, however, he discovered some flaws in the industry as a whole. As a result, he designed a source survey BDC that is entirely customizable to dealers’ and customers’ needs.
Key Takeaways:
1. Bowtie Solution’s BDC program focuses on one-lane: service. Raymond believes, “We want to do what we do, and we want to do it well.” Bowtie performs inbound call management, proactive customer outreach, outbound retention campaigns, and automated appointment scheduling.
2. At the moment, Bowtie Solutions supports dealers’ omnichannel strategy. For example, Raymond says, “You can call back the same number from which customers receive text messages from.”
3. Raymond says, “We work during the dealerships’ hours because we are in the people business. However, after hours, our artificial intelligence bot asks basic questions until a human can schedule an appointment.” While Bowtie Solutions is a service-based company, dealership sales representatives are still allowed to close deals; after that, the company contacts the client to arrange maintenance.
“The whole idea is to be an extension of the dealership.” – Matt Raymond
