When the Legal Department Takes Over!

We have more and more companies in Europe working with us at #DCDW with Calldrip! That is good news for us. However, with these expansions come challenges. After all, German, Belgian, and French dealers all have their questions and remarks about challenges that we all face.

The challenge is that we must follow up on leads faster than ever before. That is what today’s customer expects; they want an answer. And quickly. A lead that is submitted is essentially a question that has not yet been answered. The answer must therefore be provided quickly by the salesperson, and Calldrip often provides a helping hand here.

Answering immediately

With Calldrip, you have the possibility to answer the call, to evaluate the conversations, and to coach your salespeople based on that. This is a plus, but also necessary to improve. Every call center in Europe does this fully in compliance with GDPR, but not everyone wants to do it yet…

When Legal takes over

Many dealer holdings abroad are governed by legal departments that can block every advancement under the guise of legal. Consider it from this perspective: if you ask 100 lawyers whether it is safe to cross a busy street, 50 may say it is safe, provided you follow the traffic rules—cross only when the light is green, etc. The other 50 might say it is safer not to cross at all, because then you cannot get run over… Both are right…

Differences

I notice in my contacts with dealer owners in the Netherlands and abroad that there are clear differences. Most dealers in our country look at what can be done. For example, what is possible to coach people, and how can we measure what happens with the opportunities? Abroad, it is often different. There, legal is in charge, and if they say it is safer not to cross, then don’t do ‘new’ things, nothing happens, and you miss progress. Now that I am more involved in Germany and France, I see that as a small country, we are far ahead in online automotive when it comes to coming up with new solutions for new problems. We focus much more on what can be done.

Solution

I don’t have an immediate solution, except that when I encounter this issue—for example, when using AI—the legal department of that French dealer brakes. Apparently, I explained our services incorrectly. I presented it too much as a tool and too little as an advantage for the dealer. Because if the benefit for the dealer is large enough, the conversation with legal changes. Then it suddenly becomes about ‘what can be done’ instead of ‘is this allowed’? Who rules in your company? Legal, or the will to improve and grow?