Motivation Plan for the Business Development Center (BDC) Team

 The team I have selected to write about for this post is the Business Development Center (BDC) team of the luxury automobile dealership, located in Maryland, USA, to which I provide remote bilingual business development services.

The BDC team is composed of eight Business Development Representatives, remotely located in Uzbekistan, some countries within Latin America, and Canada, and their job is to enhance sales traffic into the actual dealership location, boosting commercial efforts so that the actual Sales Team (physically located in the place of business, in Maryland) is better able to close transactions.

This is done through the use of a Customer Relationship Management platform (a CRM), in which all interactions with sales leads are captured, and so every time a Sales Consultant sells a vehicle, the CRM is able to track down which specific BDC Representative generated the lead. The BDC’s goal is to generate test drive appointments and provide administrative, commercial, and customer service support (both pre and post sale) to help deals materialize.

My role within the BDC team is to both work as a BDC Representative myself and to also recruit, hire, train, and supervise the sub-group of Spanish-speaking BDC reps, as the market for said target segment of our customer base is notoriously increasing, hence the need for our bilingual administrative and commercial role within the organization.

Having already established what the BDC Team’s role and goals are, our Management and Leadership class assignment represents a great opportunity for me to propose a plan aimed at increasing motivation amongst BDC members. Said plan will be composed of six specific actions, which are defined within the next bullet points.

1.     To actively address BDC members’ needs, duly asking each member how they are coping with the job and commercial challenges, understanding their concerns, and acting on the collected information (more training being required, updating the variable compensation side of their wages, offering training trips to Maryland, etc.). Basically, making them feel they have a safe workplace and certain level of job security.

 

2.     To show them that their leader is there to inspire them and to care about them. This would entail monthly virtual or presential meetings with the company Owner / CEO, so he can personally give them feedback on their performance and share successful stories happening in the business they are part of.

 

3.     To reinforce performance excellence by rewarding those who meet and/or exceed expectations with variable components on their salary. Currently, BDC reps, on top of their fixed salaries, are rewarded with a specific dollar amount per each vehicle that was sold with their involvement, yet said amount could perhaps be further increased in segments, of for instance, for the first five cars, a specific variable amount of reward per vehicle, but then maybe for vehicles number six to number 10, the variable amount could be increased by 50% of the base line, and so forth. This would satisfy the reinforcement theory of motivation and could be a great sale booster going forward.

 

4.     The prior action would be further backed up by a specific goal-setting approach, which would more specifically lay the ground rules for a more drastic effect on BDC members’ performance. They are currently somewhat motivated by the ongoing rules of the game for variable rewards, yet they could be further motivated once new specific goals are lined up, by segments, making them realize the greater potential they could aim for if they deeply apply themselves.

 

5.     In parallel, another action would be to enrich BDC members’ discretion on the job execution and strategies they want to develop on their own to produce results for both the company and for themselves individually. When employees are given certain degree of freedom to create and operate, they tend to fly in a more comfortable fashion, as they will feel a greater sense of independence and responsibility.

 

6.     And the last action would be to offer BDC members the possibility to grow horizontally across the organization, making them participate sometimes in other aspects of the business, such as assisting the Vehicle Procurement Department for instance, enabling them to learn different functions and traits, eventually leading toward a parallel move or other possibilities within the organization.

In summary, my Motivation Plan for the Business Development Center (BDC) Team would be composed of six specific actions, which are (1) to actively address BDC members’ needs, (2) to demonstrate them that their leader is there to inspire them and to care about them, (3) to reinforce performance excellence by rewarding those who meet and/or exceed expectations with variable components on their salary, (4) to design a more specific goal-setting approach to further support the reinforcement approach, (5) to enrich BDC members’ discretion on the job execution and strategies they want to develop on their own, and (6) to offer BDC members the possibility to grow horizontally across the organization. All these actions would be aimed at moving BDC Team members’ motivation a few steps forward, capturing and applying previously proven administrative motivational theory in a win-win manner for all parties.