Do you really need to spend money on Special Finance Training? How hard can it be, right? With over 30,000 dealers nationwide offering indirect financing, you would think a major portion of those dealers would have a solid grip on subprime. However, the truth is, only about ten percent are really succeeding in special finance. So how do you know if you fall into the top ten percent or the bottom ninety? There are three key identifiers that show a dealer is in the ninety percent and has the untapped opportunity.
Data
Who is your customer base and are you actually delivering customers at benchmark numbers? The top subprime dealers in the country are able to deliver forty percent or better of their total showroom visits. Now before you jump up and say “We do that!” I will ask you one simple question. Do your salespeople all have stats that say they are closing forty to fifty percent of their customers? If they do, you should start counting yourself to verify. You might be surprised by how poorly or selectively your people count. If you are like most dealers –delivering between twenty and twenty-five percent of your legitimate up count– you need Special Finance training because there is a great opportunity to sell more cars without spending a single dollar more on your advertising.
Sales Process
Do you find yourself getting lots of people approved, yet are unable to actually deliver them? If so, you may need Special Finance training. Your sales process could be the reason you’re unable to deliver. If you find yourself in this predicament, you may find your sales force is consistently putting customers into the wrong vehicle; this is the number one reason dealers struggle in subprime.
Without the proper sales process, you will have lots of deals that won’t get off the ground. Your managers will become frustrated. Your salespeople will become disenchanted. Production as a whole will suffer. There is nothing more draining to a sales desk than to have a customer who wants to buy a car and a finance company willing to make a loan, only to have killed the deal by letting the customer drive more car than they can buy. Poor qualification at the onset of the sales is the reason this happens and it leads to low gross or even lost sales. Many times, stores with a high majority of veteran salespeople struggle here; you have to retrain them.
Aging inventory
Does thinking about the water in your inventory make you nauseous? Does it feel like you are always giving away old units or even paying customers to take them? This could be a key indicator you need Special Finance training. By understanding what you are doing in special finance better, your inventory acquisition process will begin to change.
If you are currently using any velocity-type buying tool, you are probably making purchases based on market sales. In special finance, the market sales price is not the determining factor. It’s all about the finance sources you use and what they will finance for your customers. Understanding this makes all the difference in the world as to how long a vehicle will sit on your lot. Show me a dealer who buys cars based on his finance sources and I will show you a dealer who has his inventory under control. When stocking cars for subprime, forget about MMR or any other data telling you what the market thinks about a unit; it just doesn’t matter. All that matters is if the finance companies you use like a unit or not.
Special Finance Training
Special Finance Training can help improve the number of deliveries in your store without spending any additional money, so turn on the advertising spigot and the gross profits!