The BDC funnel
Every BDC metric fits into one funnel: leads → contacted → appointments set → appointments shown → sold. Each step tells you where customers are leaking out.
| Metric | How to calculate | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Response time | Time from lead arrival to first real attempt | Whether you reach customers while they’re still shopping |
| Attempts per lead | Total outreach attempts ÷ leads | Whether follow-up is persistent enough |
| Contact rate | Leads with a real conversation ÷ total leads | How well outreach is reaching people |
| Appointment set rate | Appointments set ÷ leads (or ÷ contacted leads) | How well conversations turn into commitments |
| Show rate | Appointments shown ÷ appointments that came due | Appointment quality and confirmation process |
| Close rate | Sold ÷ appointments shown | Sales floor performance on BDC appointments |
| Cost per shown appointment | BDC cost ÷ shown appointments | The real price of the BDC |
Tips for measuring honestly
Count shows only on appointments that have come due. If you set 40 appointments this month and 8 are scheduled for next week, your show rate is shows divided by the 32 that came due, not 40.
Separate lead sources. Website leads, third-party leads, trade-in leads and phone-ups behave differently. Blending them hides problems.
Track attempts, not just outcomes. Low appointment numbers with only one or two attempts per lead is a follow-up problem, not a lead problem.
Use your CRM as the source of truth. If outreach isn’t logged, you can’t measure it.
A real example
Here’s how the funnel looked for our first 30 days on KBB Instant Cash Offer leads at a Central Florida Ford dealership:
- Attempts: 3,522 calls, texts and emails
- Appointments set: 38 (30 had come due by the end of that month; 8 were still scheduled)
- Show rate: 83% of the appointments that came due
Those numbers show what persistent follow-up looks like on a lead source many stores write off.
Reviewing your BDC
Review these metrics weekly by lead source, and monthly with your BDC provider. Look for the biggest drop in the funnel and fix that step first. See BDC best practices and the BDC ROI guide.