Digital Dealer - July 2019 - 23

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM DENVER

start by learning more about your
background. What did you do before
entering the car business, and why did
you decide to make it your career?
JASON: I started in the car business
about one year after graduating college
with a marketing degree. I was selling
ads for the yellow pages-door to
door-in New York City. That was one
of my first jobs out of college. It was
grueling. I had a friend at the time in
the car business and he suggested I try
it out and work the summer and make
some money while deciding what I
really wanted to do. The rest is history.
That was 18 years ago. I fell in love with
the industry and have been working in
it ever since.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What do you
enjoy most about working in a Honda
store?
JASON: Honda is a great product
and probably one of the easiest
to sell. What I like is that from a
manufacturing side, they keep it very
simple. You don't have to worry about
a bunch of different packages and
installed options. For example, every
Honda Pilot LX comes the same way
and has the same MSRP. If you're
talking about Ford or Toyota, they have
different packages and accessories
installed at the factory. You could get
ten different MSRPs for the same car.
Honda is a simple car to learn and to
sell, and having high resale value really
helps with our leasing programs.
Recognized as a BDC Guru, Jason
Cohen is the Business Development
Director for DCH Paramus Honda and
DCH Honda of Nanuet. In his role,
Jason, a native of New York City, wears
many hats, from Customer Relations
Manager to head of Digital Marketing.
In the following interview, Jason shares
proven tips and techniques for getting
the most value out your BDC, and talks
about how your service department
could help your store remain profitable
in a slower sales environment.
DEALER MAGAZINE: I'd like to

DEALER MAGAZINE:

Let's talk about your success with
BDC. How many are on your team, and
what kind of daily call volume do they
handle?
JASON: On the service side, I
have eight members who handle
approximately 7,000 calls for service
each month, and they also make about
4,000 outbound calls each month. I
have ten people on the sales side. They
handle approximately 3000 internet
leads and sales call a month and make
approximately 15,000 outbound calls.
DEALER MAGAZINE: Do you

have any BDC "before and after" ROI
numbers to share?
JASON: Yes. When we first started
our service BDC a few years ago-we
used to outsource it before bringing
it in-house-we were averaging about
4,000 customer-pay ROs a month.
Now we're at 5,000, which is a nice
25% increase over the past couple of
years. Not only did we increase the RO
count, but we're 30% more profitable
than a few years ago in the service
department. And that's net profit.
On the sales side, we've been a top 10
Honda store in the country every year
for the last decade. We're one of the
highest volume stores in the country,
selling an average of 500 new cars and
250 used cars per month, and 50% of
that comes from the BDC.
DEALER MAGAZINE: Consumers
tend to be more price-conscious these
days and will search first for their
lowest-price choices. What is the most
successful argument your agents use to
promote value over price?
JASON: Customers have been
brainwashed to ask about price. That's
because every website they go on says
click here for price, which is one of
the ways those sites generate leads.
It's critical to find out what else is
important to the customer and what
creates value. I give everyone on my
team a sheet that lists ten reasons for
buying here or getting your car serviced
here. They're required to mention two
or three of the reasons in every call.
You don't have to be the lowest
price out there, but you have to be
competitive, and you have to show
value in other areas, if you want their
business.
For example, we talk about our
online reviews: we have over five
thousand 5-star reviews across all
the sites we're on. We talk about our
service department hours, because
we're open longer than any other
dealership in New Jersey, seven in the
morning until nine at night. We tell

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

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Digital Dealer - July 2019

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