Start two weeks out. Pull baseline numbers for each agent, save ten recorded calls per agent, gather your current scripts and follow-up cadence, set up CRM access for the trainer, schedule phone coverage, block the managers' calendars, and tell the team plainly why the training is happening. The trainer needs most of this a week ahead.
Why the Two Weeks Before Matter
Dealers tend to treat the visit as the whole event. The preparation gets a phone call the Friday before. Then the trainer teaches a general class instead of one built on your calls.
There is some research behind taking the before and after seriously. In a survey of training professionals at 150 organizations, what happened in the workplace before and after training was more strongly related to whether people used it than what happened during the class (Saks and Belcourt, Human Resource Management, 2006). Those are trainers' own estimates gathered by survey, across industries, not measured behavior in dealerships.
The Checklist
| Item | Owner | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline numbers per agent, last 90 days | BDC manager | Two weeks out |
| Ten recorded calls per agent, plus written first responses | BDC manager | Two weeks out |
| Current scripts, templates and follow-up cadence | BDC manager | Ten days out |
| CRM and phone-system access for the trainer | CRM administrator or GM | One week out |
| Phone and lead coverage plan for training hours | BDC manager and GSM | One week out |
| Sales managers' and BDC manager's calendars blocked | GM | One week out |
| Team told what, when and why | GM or dealer | One week out |
| Room, screen, headsets with a second listening port or call-monitoring login | BDC manager | Two days out |
Two Weeks Out: Numbers and Recordings
Baseline numbers, per agent
Pull the last 90 days from the CRM, by agent and by month. Use the definitions on our dealership BDC benchmarks page so everyone means the same thing:
- Workable leads assigned.
- Contact rate: leads where a two-way conversation happened, over workable leads. A voicemail is not a contact.
- Appointment set rate: firm appointments with a date and time, over contacts.
- Show rate: appointments that arrived, over appointments set.
- Sold rate: units sold, over appointments shown.
- Response time on internet leads, if your CRM reports it.
Team totals hide the story. Two agents with the same lead count and very different set rates are a training question. An entire room with a low contact rate may be a staffing or cadence question. If the numbers will not pull cleanly, or appointments are not being logged at all, tell the trainer now. That is a finding in itself, and reading your BDC numbers for skill gaps shows what each rate points to. Keep the file: it is the baseline you will use for measuring the training's results later.
Ten recorded calls per agent
Ten is enough to hear a pattern and few enough that someone will actually listen to them. How you pick them matters:
- Take them at random from the last two or three weeks. Do not let agents choose their best ones.
- Mix inbound sales calls and outbound follow-up calls.
- Include calls that did not end in an appointment. Those are the ones worth hearing.
- Skip wrong numbers and calls under a minute.
- Add five first responses to internet leads per agent: the actual email or text that went out.
If your store does not record calls, say so early; the trainer will need to listen live instead. If you do record, check the rules before sending files to anyone outside the store. Our guide to call recording laws for dealerships covers consent, and recordings contain customer information, so send them through a secure share and not as email attachments. This is general information, not legal advice.
Ten Days Out: Scripts, Cadence and the Process as It Really Runs
Send what agents actually use, not what the binder says. That means the inbound call guide, the email and text templates loaded in the CRM, the voicemail wording, and the follow-up schedule: how many attempts, on which days, by which channel. If the written cadence says twelve touches and the CRM shows most leads getting three, send both facts.
Add a short note on the rest of the process. Who gets a new internet lead and how is it assigned? Who answers when the BDC is busy? What happens to a lead after hours? How is an appointment handed to the sales desk, and who confirms it? A page of honest answers saves an hour of discovery on site. If you want a fuller self-review first, our lead handling audit walks through the whole chain; this checklist only covers what a trainer needs.
One Week Out: Access, Coverage and Calendars
CRM access for the trainer
Create a named user for the trainer. Do not hand over a manager's login. Give it the access needed to see leads, activity history, templates and reports, and set an end date. Add call-monitoring or recording access in the phone system if that is separate. Test both before the visit; a locked account on the first morning costs real time. The same rules apply as for any outside party in your CRM, covered in giving a vendor CRM access.
Phone coverage while agents are in the room
Leads do not pause for training. Decide in advance:
- Which agents are in session and which are on the phones, hour by hour. Split the room so the two groups swap.
- Who takes overflow: a receptionist with a short message script, a sales manager, or an outside service.
- Your heaviest hours. Tell the trainer so the classroom blocks avoid them.
- What happens to internet leads that arrive during a block, and who owns them afterward.
If the room is so thin that pulling two agents leaves calls unanswered, that is worth knowing before training day. Pinnacle's outsourced call center, BDC On Demand, lists overflow support among the ways it works with stores, and other outside services offer the same; a receptionist and a clear message script also work for a couple of days.
The managers' calendars
This is the item most often skipped. The BDC manager needs to be in the sessions, not covering a desk. The sales managers need a blocked hour or two for the handoff session, on a day that is not a Saturday or the last day of the month. The GM or dealer should plan to be visible at the start and at the wrap-up. When the people in charge are missing, the agents conclude the training is something being done to them and not something the store cares about.
What to Tell the Team, and How
Agents hear "a trainer is coming to listen to your calls" as "someone is in trouble." If that goes unanswered, the first morning is spent getting past it. Say it yourself, a week ahead, in person:
- What is happening: the dates, who the trainer is, and that everyone including the manager takes part.
- Why: a specific reason. "We set appointments on too few of the people we reach, and I want us better at it" is a reason. "Corporate wants it" is not.
- What it is not: an audition for anyone's job. Only say this if it is true.
- What they will do: role-play and live coaching, with recordings of real calls played in the room. Nobody likes that surprise.
- What happens after: calls will be scored regularly, and here is how.
Ask each agent to bring one call or customer type that beats them. It tells them their input counts, and it gives the trainer better practice scenarios than any script. If the pay plan rewards appointments set regardless of whether they show, look at that before the visit, because the training will ask for firmer appointments and the pay plan will be pulling the other way.
Where Pinnacle Fits
We run in-store Sales BDC Training, and the preparation above suits how that page describes it: customized to the store's brand, OEM standards, goals and current performance metrics, taught on the store's own CRM, with evaluation of live calls and internet responses. None of that can be customized without your numbers, recordings and access. What we will ask for in your case is something to confirm with us when you book; this list is our general advice for any trainer. For what the visit itself should look like, see what to expect from in-store BDC training, or start at the Sales BDC Training Resource Center.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far ahead should we start preparing for BDC training?
Two weeks is comfortable. The numbers and recordings take the longest, because someone has to pull them per agent and the trainer needs time to listen. Access, coverage and calendars can be settled a week out. Less than a week usually means the trainer arrives without having heard a call.
What if our CRM data is too messy to pull a baseline?
Pull what you can and say what is missing. Unlogged appointments and leads with no activity are findings the trainer needs. Then start logging cleanly now, so you have at least two tidy weeks before the visit. A partial baseline with honest notes beats a polished one nobody trusts.
Should agents know which of their calls were sent to the trainer?
Tell them calls were pulled at random and that everyone's were included, the manager's too if the manager takes calls. You do not need to list which ones. Hiding it backfires when a recording is played in the room and the agent learns then that it was shared.
What is the most common preparation mistake?
Leaving the managers out. The store sends recordings and blocks a room, then the BDC manager covers the phones and the sales managers work deals through the handoff session. The agents learn something for a few days, and nobody in the building is equipped to keep it going.
Summary
Prepare for BDC training over two weeks, not two days. Pull 90 days of per-agent numbers using fixed definitions, save ten random calls and a few written responses per agent, send the scripts and cadence as they really run, give the trainer a named CRM login, plan phone coverage hour by hour, block the managers' calendars, and tell the team the real reason in person. The visit can only be as specific as what you hand over beforehand.
